22 guns recovered from burglaries

Published 12:00 am Thursday, February 10, 2011

VIDALIA — Three men wanted in connection with a slew of hunting camp burglaries in a three-parish area were arrested by the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Tuesday.

Dylan Aswell, 18, 825 Passman Road, Jonesville, Jeremy Wilson Case, 18, 494 Nelsonville Road, Clayton and William Cody McCarty, 19, 121 Leeland Loop Road, Sicily Island, were all charged with possession of marijuana and illegal possession of stolen firearms.

The three men were arrested after officers with the Catahoula, Tensas and Concordia Parish Sheriff offices investigated the hunting camp burglaries over the weekend.

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Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones said he is not sure when the camp burglaries started, but approximately 10 to 15 camps all over Tensas were hit by the suspects.

Catahoula Parish Sheriff’s Office Narcotics and Criminal Investigator Dewain Littleton said that so far 22 guns, including pistols, hunting rifles and shotguns, have been recovered from the investigation.

The suspects were taken the stolen firearms and selling them for profit, Littleton said.

Littleton said the Catahoula office received a call from TPSO officials at the beginning of the week stating they had a string of burglaries and that the suspects were in Catahoula.

Littleton said after investigating the information from Tensas, an arrest was made.

A.J. White, 24, Sicily Island, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and possession of a stolen firearm.

“He had several of the items in his house that were reported stolen from Tensas, including two of the firearms,” Littleton said.

With help from the U.S. Marshall Service, Littleton said the investigation turned toward catching Aswell, Case and McCarty.

Littleton said officers had gotten reports that the three individuals where in Natchez.

Littleton set up in Concordia Parish, where he made a traffic stop on the suspects while they were on their way back to Catahoula.

“We recovered a stolen pistol out of the vehicle that was one of the ones stolen out of Tensas along with some marijuana,” he said.

Littleton said Concordia Parish officers were called to take the suspects into custody.

During the investigation of the suspects, Littleton said officers were able to determine the location of more of the stolen weapons.

Littleton said the investigation took them to the residence of 64-year-old Sicily Island resident Lodis LeBlanc Jr., where officers uncovered 17 of the stolen firearms.

Littleton also said there was more than an ounce of marijuana recovered from the house that was left sitting out in plain view.

LeBlanc was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and possession of a stolen firearm while in possession of a controlled substance.

Littleton said officers have yet to recover all of the reported stolen weapons.

“We have got our suspects, but the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.

Littleton said the arrest of these three men has also helped solve at least one other burglary from Catahoula, as one of the men confessed to a weapons burglary from earlier this month during the investigation.

Jones said while the three men were charged in Concordia, there are also going to be charges for them in Tensas and Catahoula as well.