On Monday, the Walker County Grand Jury returned special indictments for violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and for numerous counts of attempt to purchase marijuana and illegal use of a communication facility. 

Special Presentment Indictments were returned for Warren Everett Smith, Barbara Sue Smith, Seth Elliott Smith, Randall Allen Ferguson, Ronald Steven Hise and Barry Franklin for violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. 15 others were indicted on the marijuana and communications devise charges.

 A petition for forfeiture was filed in Walker County on April 24 and in Gordon County on April 25 by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office. The estimated value of the seized assets from Warren Everette Smith,  Barbara Sue Smith, Seth Elliott Smith, Ronald Steven Hise and William Kirk Sisson is approximately $1.1 million.

The indictments and seizures were part of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Drug Task Force.  The investigation was a joint effort with the District Attorney's Office, the Walker County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration with the assistance of the Cattoosa County Sheriff's office, the Dade county Sheriff's Office, the LaFayette Police Department, the Rossville Police Department, the Fort Oglethorpe Police Department, the Georgia State patrol, the Georgia Department of natural Resources, the Georgia Department of Corrections and the Governor's Counterdrug Task Force.