Man gets nearly 19 years for trafficking meth

GULFPORT -- A Gautier man has been sentenced to prison for 18 years and nine months for helping a gang member and others distribute large amounts of crystal meth shipped from Fresno, Calif., to Jackson County.

Demario Antwon Neal, 25, also was fined $5,000 at his sentencing Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr.

Crystal meth, or ice, is meth's purest form.

Neal is one of four men indicted in a drug-trafficking conspiracy uncovered by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. He was the last to plead guilty and receive a prison term.

Neal was accused of receiving at least nine pounds of meth from 2013 until his indictment June 23, 2015.

Two of his co-defendants are now serving 23-year prison terms.

Michael Wayne "Swisha" Hanzik Jr., 27, of Pascagoula, has been identified in court as a member of the Simon City Royals Street gang and the leader of the "elaborate and extensive" meth ring. He had been arrested in a March 2015 traffic stop in which drug agents said they found meth stuffed in tennis balls to conceal it.

Marques DeAnthony Payton, 37, of Atlanta, was a former youth coach in Gautier. He received a prison term of 23 years and four months.

Payton and Hanzik arranged for drug shipments to other people's homes to conceal meth intended for drug peddlers, according to court testimony. Payton, for instance, brokered a 14-pound shipment of ice sent to Jackson County in March 2015, according to testimony. The same month, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office in California intercepted a shipment of ice bound for Hanzik's home.

The fourth man is Scott Joseph Houska, 49, of Gautier. Houska is serving a prison term of 14 years and seven months.

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Man gets nearly 19 years for trafficking meth ."