A former Leflore County deputy sheriff facing federal drug trafficking charges has waived an initial hearing in the case, which was scheduled for Tuesday in Oxford.
Mark Head, 34, 1105 Holloway St., was arrested last Tuesday on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance after the former deputy allegedly was paid $1,500 to pick up approximately one kilogram of cocaine for a Leflore County drug dealer in Little Round Park on Dec. 4.
As it turned out, the drug dealer was an FBI informant, the cocaine was fake and the man Head allegedly met in his Leflore County Sheriff’s Department patrol car to pick up the cocaine was an undercover FBI agent.
Head was arrested by Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks and turned over to federal authorities Tuesday morning. Banks said Head had served with the department for about six years and was fired at the time of his arrest.
Banks said his department was aware of the FBI investigation and had been cooperating with federal authorities for several months.
The federal complaint against Head remains sealed, but according to an attached affidavit by FBI Special Agent John Quaka, Head had been in contact with the unnamed informant for several years.According to the affidavit, Head had tipped off the informant about a planned 2012 raid of his home.
Quaka said that Head had also taken cash bribes from the informant for the deputy’s help in dismissing a DUI charge against the informant’s nephew and that Head had agreed to use police databases to check vehicle registrations.
As of this morning, no new hearings in the case had been scheduled. Head was released on $10,000 bond after making an initial appearance before a federal magistrate shortly after his arrest.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
