LONGVIEW — A Gilmer man, his wife and his brother were arrested Wednesday on synthetic drug-related and money laundering charges following their recent indictments by a federal grand jury, said a federal prosecutor.

Jeremy Chad Tidwell, 39, and his 36-year-old wife, Shanna Peek Tidwell, owners of The Glass Dragon in Longview, were arrested in Longview, said John M. (Malcolm) Bales, United States attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. Tidwell’s brother, 42-year-old Brian Tidwell of Arlington, was arrested in that city, Bales said.

Bales announced the indictments and arrests at a midafternoon press conference attended by federal, Gregg County, Upshur County, and Longview city authorities at the Gregg County Courthouse. According to a press release from his office, the arrests followed “a lengthy investigation into a synthetic drug operation” by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Tyler Task Force.

The defendants were indicted Nov. 12 on two counts of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute synthetic drugs containing Schedule I controlled substances and controlled substance analogues; one count of conspiracy to offer for sale misbranded or altered drugs; one count of conspiracy to sell drug paraphernalia; and one count of conspiracy to money launder, according to a press release from Bales’ office.

The Tidwells made their initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge John D. Love and in convicted, face up to 20 years in federal prison, said Davilyn Walston, public information officer for Bales’ office. Bales, who lives in Nacogdoches, handled the case from his Tyler office.

The suspects were arrested — and authorities will seek forfeiture of $5 million worth of property — as authorities went to locations in Gregg and Upshur Counties, and even Colorado, authorities said. Four unnamed retail stores in Longview were searched as part of what Bales said was titled “Operation Pin the Tail on the Dragon.”

Besides businesses, the sites included an airport and two residences, Dan Salter, the DEA Dallas division’s special agent in charge, said at the 37-minute press conference. He made “a conservative guess” that 300 to 500 pounds of materials were seized.

Bales said the Tidwells had been “distributing large quantities” of the synthetic drug K2, also known as “spice,” and that The Glass Dragon store had customers from a four-state area. He said Wednesday’s actions dealt a “blow to this enterprise,” and that authorities have a “detailed and compelling case.”

The Glass Dragon owners drew a “vast amount of income” from synthetic and analogue substances, Bales said. But Wednesday’s operation was “not only to hold the Tidwells accountable. … They’re just the beginning of our efforts,” the prosecutor said.

K2 is “essentially smuggled into the country,” and the Tidwells were receiving “packaged product already doctored up with the chemicals,” Bales said. He told the Tyler Morning Telegraph that K2 is similar to the hallucinogen LSD, and that it is aimed at duplicating the effect which THC in marijuana has on the brain.

Meantime, a combined task force of federal, state and local law officers executed federal arrest and search warrants in Longview Wednesday after law enforcement agencies last April initiated an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force probe “into a synthetic marijuana trafficking organization based in the East Texas area,” Walston wrote.

“This investigation involved extensive surveillance and controlled purchases of controlled substances, controlled substance analogues, and drug paraphernalia. To date, law enforcement officials have seized several products containing illegal synthetic drugs,” Walston added.

Bales said Upshur County became involved in the case because materials from the Glass Dragon were found at crime scenes there. Reports on those incidents were located, and Upshur law enforcement officers were “very helpful,” said Bales as Upshur County Sheriff Anthony Betterton stood near him. (Betterton did not comment during the conference.)

Bales said referring to K2 as synthetic marijuana is a distortion, terming it a highly addictive “poison” which can cause hallucinations and paranoid behavior, among other health issues.

“We know that there have been deaths in the community” from using the substance, said Gregg County Sheriff Maxey Cerliano. “It’s destroyed lives,” added Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt.

Bales meanwhile said that K2, “cynically marketed as potpourri and incense,” is not actually that. It is wrongly believed to be legal, and those who use it are “foolish” to think it will allow them to pass drug screens, he warned.

“We cannot and we will not ignore a threat like this in our own backyard,” Bales declared.

Cerliano said “thousands and thousands of man-hours” had gone into the case, and “the investigation is not over.” Bales said authorities had worked on the case for several months, and that Cerliano began looking at it two years ago.

“The Glass Dragon used to run wide open in Longview,” Cerliano said, but moved out into the county where there are fewer restrictions. The sheriff also told the press conference he and Stoudt had received visits from citizens asking “us to do something.”

Cerliano said he contacted the DEA in Tyler, which “opened the door” for initiating the investigation. Officials in Washington and the Eastern District of Texas U.S. attorney’s office had to agree to it, he said.

“We have now established a path for prosecution” over a “health concern,” the sheriff added, predicting “the events of today will have a positive impact.”

During the press conference, Salter hailed Wednesday’s action as “a victory for East Texas.” He said the “Tidwell drug trafficking operation” was “making a very good profit on the back of addiction.”

“Let me stress that we consider this (K2) poison,” Salter added. He indicated that one complication in dealing with it is that analogues, which make up synthetic drugs, are changed to make them legal.

Longview Mayor Jay Dean meantime said the arrests constituted “a great day” for his city. He said it had enacted an ordinance “to remove K2 from our streets,” and that parents had talked about the pain of seeing their children involved with it.

Dean also said he has contacted certain state legislators about enacting laws to eliminate synthetic drugs.

Stoudt echoed Dean, telling the press conference “This is a great day for the people that have suffered from this poison.”

Walston said the DEA Task Force in Tyler included officers from the Gregg, Henderson, Smith and Upshur counties’ sheriff’s offices, the Henderson and Kilgore police departments, and DEA special agents.

She said other agencies assisting with the joint investigative effort included the Gregg County Organized Drug Enforcement Unit (CODE), Longview, Lakeport and Gladewater police departments, the Arkansas state attorney general’s office, and the United States Marshals Service.