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Officials: Cocoa cocaine trafficking op busted

COCOA, Fla. — WFTV has learned a major cocaine trafficking operation has lost some of its key players thanks to Brevard County deputies and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It's no secret that Interstate 95 has been used for years as a drug trafficking corridor.

Maurice Evans is facing federal charges, accused of being the main man in an operation bringing large quantities of cocaine from a supplier in south Florida in Brevard County.

Federal investigators said Evans admitted to arranging to bring in a kilogram to 4 kilograms of cocaine a month since 2009, at $30,000 each.

Evan's home on Bernard Street in Cocoa across from a church was used as a stash house for the drugs, investigators said.

Investigators said he would sometimes distribute the drugs in large quantities to other dealers, including to William "Bernard" Collins.

This is not the first time the two men have been accused of a similar crime, police said.

Evans and Collins were indicted in 1996 and later convicted for their role in a cocaine trafficking operation that federal prosecutors say started in the 1980s.

Both men served their time and investigators said they rekindled their business relationship when they got out.

Neighbors said it was a shock to them and said they thought Collins just worked at a local grocery store.

"They arrested Pops?" said neighbor Deon Murphy.

"You know him?" said WFTV reporter Jeff Deal.

"Yeah, I know Pops. I definitely knew Pops," Murphy said.

"Pops" was how the neighbors referred to Collins.

Investigators have picked up a handful of other people in recent weeks related to the operation.