OXFORD — Former Hollandale police officer Javery Howard pleaded guilty Thursday to charges involving the transportation and distribution of illegal drugs through portions of the Mississippi Delta and into Memphis. He also admitted to traveling to Miami on two occasions to plot drug runs with FBI agents posing as Mexican drug cartel members.
He is among those charged in a federal drug trafficking indictment involving nine former Mississippi Delta law enforcement officers, including a former police chief and two former sheriffs. In five separate indictments, an additional six former Delta law enforcement officers are charged with drug trafficking related charges.
Howard, 33, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He was indicted in October for accepting $31,000 in multiple bribe payments, the second highest of any other defendant across six indictments of former Delta law enforcement officers and associates.
He previously served as an officer with the Metcalfe Police Department. Co-conspirator Brandon Addison, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking last week, served alongside Howard at police departments in Hollandale and Metcalfe. Both departments are located in small, rural communities outside Greenville in Washington County. Howard is a resident of Greenville.
As part of Howard’s plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi dropped five counts of attempting to aid and abet the transportation of illegal drugs, five counts of trafficking illegal drugs with a firearm, and one count of conspiring to traffick illegal drugs in possession of a firearm.
Howard declined to comment to Mississippi Today.
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael P. Mills accepted Howard’s guilty plea and set sentencing for Aug. 13. Mills released Howard on the conditions of the $10,000 unsecured bond after his arrest.
Howard was arrested on Oct. 30 along with former Washington County Sheriff Milton Gaston, former Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Truron Grayson, former Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams, Addison, four additional former law enforcement officers, a former corrections officer and five associates as part of what the FBI called a conspiracy to aid and abet the transport and distribution of roughly 55 pounds of cocaine on five escorted runs — the most out of any co-conspirator.
Northern District of Mississippi United States District Court building in Oxford is pictured on Thursday, March 19, 2026. Credit: Leonardo Bevilacqua/Mississippi TodayThe U.S. Attorney’s Office dropped Washington County sheriff’s deputy Amber Holmes’s charges on Oct. 30 due to exonerating evidence from subsequent interviews with sources.
Sean Williams, a former officer with the Yazoo City Police Department, intends to change his plea from not guilty, according to a March 20 court filing. A hearing has not been set.
The remaining charged co-conspirators in Howard’s indictment are scheduled for trial on July 20 in Oxford. Williams, who subsequently stepped down as sheriff, pleaded not guilty and promised to mount a “complete defense.” Washington County moved former Sheriff William Gaston into a new position responsible for trash collection in January.
Under federal guidelines, Howard can be sentenced to between 10 years and life in prison. He could also face up to $10 million in fines.
On Oct. 30, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed six indictments, which ensnared more than 14 current and former Mississippi Delta law enforcement officers. Those charged were arrested in pre-sunrise sweeps in some cases at private homes and apartment complexes by special agents in armored cars.
The Justice Department charged current and former officers from sheriff’s offices in Washington, Humphreys and Sunflower counties and police departments in Greenville, Greenwood, Isola, Hollandale, Metcalfe and Yazoo City.
The department also charged Greenwood-based former Highway Patrolman Marquivius Bankhead and former state Department of Corrections guard Marcus Nolan, a Drew native, on drug trafficking charges.
Asahn Roach, who was named in the same indictment as Howard, is a former school resource officer for Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Pierre Lakes, a Drew native, owns a real estate investment company. Torio Chaz Wiseman was a football coach for the Memphis Business Academy charter school.
At the conspiracy’s outset, a local drug dealer and FBI informant introduced Howard and Addison to an FBI agent posing as a Mexican drug cartel member who offered bribe payments in exchange for the safe transport of illegal narcotics, namely cocaine, through the Mississippi Delta along Highway 61 to Memphis. Howard, Addison and associates escorted the drug transports on three separate occasions in March 2023, March 2024 and July 2024, also escorting the proceeds of the drug trafficking in October 2023 and March 2024.
Howard, along with individuals unnamed in the indictment, are accused of escorting roughly 55 pounds of cocaine on June 22, 2022, the same date on which former Greenwood Police Department officer Jamario Sanford pleaded guilty to protecting illegal drug shipments through Washington, Sunflower and Leflore counties.
Howard is the fifth former Mississippi Delta law enforcement officer from the Greenville area to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges since mid-February.
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