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Mississippi sheriff tied to mafia drugs murder

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/16552860.htm

http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/16552860.htm

Posted on Fri, Jan. 26, 2007
Hobbs served time for racketeering, drug conspiracy

Associated Press

BILOXI, Miss. - Howard Leroy Hobbs, a former Harrison County sheriff known for his tailored suits and ties to the Dixie Mafia, has filed papers to run for his old job.

Hobbs, 72, served as sheriff for 12 years in Harrison County. He also served almost 12 years in federal prison for racketeering and drug conspiracy.

"I wasn't as pure as the driven snow," Hobbs said Thursday in an interview with The Sun Herald newspaper. "But I wasn't Saddam Hussein, either."

The Mississippi Constitution bars people with federal felony records from serving in public office. However, the amendment was added to the constitution in 1992 and since Hobbs was sentenced before it took effect, it does not apply to him.

Hobbs, also a former police chief of Gulfport, was once a rising star in law enforcement.

His career effectively crumbled on June 16, 1983, when he was arrested in a federal sting. The case against him involved bribery, extortion, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.

He entered a plea bargain agreement and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1984. He actually served 11 years and six months.

Federal court records had alleged a close association between Hobbs and notorious Dixie Mafia figures such as Jim Blackwell and D.J. Venus III, as well as his being a friend of New Orleans Mafia boss Carlos Marcello.

The Dixie Mafia was a ring of interlocking criminal groups that operated mostly in the South in the 1960s and 1970s.

Before his last term was over, Hobbs would become the first Harrison County sheriff sentenced to prison.

In June 1983, six months into Hobbs' last year in office, a federal task force caught him as he waited for what he thought was an airdrop of cocaine. The drugs were to be dropped from a plane onto a farm in north-central Harrison County. The farm was run by Venus.

What Hobbs, Venus and others did not know was that the airdrop was bogus. It was a sting set up by federal agents.

"I'm sure some people will hold that against me," Hobbs said Thursday. "But that was all political."

He said he hopes to put his past aside and focus on issues facing the sheriff's department.

Current Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. and his department face numerous lawsuits and a federal investigation over events at the county jail.

"I have 25 years of law enforcement experience," Hobbs said. "I think the department needs to go in a new direction."

© 2007 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.


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