ROGERS, Ark. – Months before Rogers police and federal agents pulled more than 9 pounds of cocaine out of a Rogers home on Sept. 3, they were tracking the car of one of the suspected supplier’s customers and watching the two meet in a department store parking lot, newly filed search warrant records show.
Luis Alfonso Estebane, 32, is being held on a $500,000 cash bond on probable cause for two counts of trafficking a controlled substance, delivery of cocaine and simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, all Class Y felonies punishable by 10 to 40 years or life in prison, along with eight other felony counts. A judge also ordered him to surrender his passport.
His case is one of four Rogers Police Department narcotics investigations laid out in search warrant returns filed in Benton County Circuit Court in September. Together they describe a monthslong effort by the department’s narcotics unit and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fayetteville office to work up a chain of cocaine and methamphetamine dealers using confidential informants, a GPS tracker and undercover phone buys.
‘A large-scale cocaine drug trafficking organization’
The investigation began in March, when Rogers detectives and the DEA started looking at what Detective Jerred Rankin called “a large-scale cocaine drug trafficking organization” operating in Northwest Arkansas, according to an affidavit for a GPS tracking warrant.
Detectives first focused on a Lowell man they identified as a mid-level distributor for the group. Informants made multiple controlled purchases from him starting in March, and a judge authorized a tracker on his GMC Terrain and location pings on his phone, the affidavit said.
On June 30, an informant called the Lowell man and asked for a quarter-pound of cocaine. The man said he had only half that amount and would have to contact his supplier, the affidavit said.
As officers followed the Lowell man, a second surveillance team was watching Estebane, who left his home on West Olrich Street, stopped briefly at a laundromat and drove to the JCPenney parking lot in Rogers, where the two met, according to the affidavit. Estebane then parked at a nearby business and waited while the Lowell man sold the informant about 116 grams of cocaine for $5,300 in DEA funds, the affidavit said.
Rankin obtained a second 60-day tracking warrant on the Terrain in July. The return filed Sept. 3 states the tracker was removed Aug. 17 and the warrant closed. The Lowell man has not been charged in state court, and his name is not being published.
Snapchat ‘Friendly Ghost’
In September, detectives went directly after Estebane, who the affidavit says goes by “Ghost.” An informant set up a purchase through Estebane’s Snapchat account, “Friendly Ghost,” and bought between 10 and 200 grams of cocaine from him at a location in Rogers, according to a probable cause affidavit.
On Sept. 3, Rogers narcotics detectives, DEA agents and Benton County sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at Estebane’s home at 13404 Bryant Place in Rogers. Estebane was inside. Asked what officers would find, he replied, “You going to find some stuff,” then declined to answer further questions, the affidavit said.
Officers reported seizing about 4,146 grams of cocaine, about 316 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, about 38 grams of MDMA, an LSD blotter strip, ecstasy and amphetamine pills, a clonazepam pill, about 128 grams of marijuana and vape cartridges, a Glock 43X pistol with ammunition, brass knuckles, $4,231 in cash and jewelry inscribed with his nickname.
They also found a counterfeit Social Security card and a counterfeit residency card bearing Estebane’s photo but a different name, along with travel documents showing trips to and from Chihuahua, Mexico, in the past five years, according to the affidavit.
Rankin wrote that he found no prior criminal convictions for Estebane. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Clayton Caple asked for a $750,000 cash bond. A judge set it at $500,000 cash and ordered him to appear Oct. 12 in Benton County Circuit Court. Estebane remained in the Benton County jail Wednesday, and prosecutors had not yet filed a formal criminal information in the case. The jail roster also lists a no-bond hold on him for the U.S. Marshals Service, an indication federal authorities have an interest in the case. No federal charge against him appeared in online court records Wednesday.
Cocaine in his socks at Boar’s Nest
A separate cocaine investigation ended in the parking lot of Boar’s Nest on West Walnut Street on the night of Aug. 7.
Ellis Joeavonne Spates, 32, had been under investigation since April, when an informant bought cocaine from him in Rogers, according to a probable cause affidavit. On Aug. 7, Detective Mark Jonasson texted Spates from an undercover phone and arranged to buy 14 grams of cocaine for $850, the affidavit said.
When detectives approached Spates in the parking lot about 9:12 p.m., he sat down on the pavement and pulled multiple baggies of cocaine from his socks, the affidavit said. Officers seized about 24 grams.
Two people who had driven Spates to the bar in a Ford Explorer were also arrested after a police dog alerted on the vehicle and officers found marijuana, a gun, ammunition and drug paraphernalia inside, according to the affidavit. The driver said she gave Spates a ride in exchange for money and did not know why he needed one.
Spates told detectives he had been selling cocaine for about a year and that his supplier was in Little Rock. He unlocked both of his phones for Jonasson and showed him the contact for his source and the text thread arranging the sale, according to a later search warrant affidavit for the phones.
Prosecutors charged Spates on Sept. 17 with delivery of cocaine, possession of 10 to 200 grams of cocaine, both Class B felonies, and unlawful use of a communication device, a Class C felony. His bond was set at $50,000, and he remained in the Benton County jail Wednesday. He is represented by the public defender’s office and is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 5.
Spates mailed a handwritten motion to the court from the Benton County jail in early September challenging its jurisdiction and asking that all charges be dismissed with prejudice. The court has not ruled on it.
The arrest also triggered a probation revocation in Washington County, where Spates pleaded guilty in November 2025 to cocaine possession and failure to appear and received four years of probation. Prosecutors there filed to revoke it Aug. 26, and a judge issued an arrest warrant. The Benton County jail roster shows a separate no-bond hold on Spates for Fayetteville police.
Meth case in Fayetteville
A third investigation targeted Oscar Blanco, who Rogers detectives said sold methamphetamine to an informant in Rogers several times between April and July.
On July 17, the DEA executed a state search warrant at Blanco’s apartment at 2696 N. Club Drive in Fayetteville and asked Rogers detectives to help with the search and interview, according to a search warrant affidavit for Blanco’s iPhone. Officers seized 138.5 grams of methamphetamine from the apartment.
Blanco admitted distributing methamphetamine and gave detectives information about his suppliers, the affidavit said. Text messages on his phone showed drug-related conversations with a supplier identified only as “Nena,” according to the affidavit. He was taken to the Benton County jail for a bond hearing.
No charges against Blanco appear in Arkansas state court records, and no case under his name appears in the online federal court dockets for the Western District of Arkansas. Rankin described him in the affidavit as a mid-level trafficker operating across Northwest Arkansas.
Dispensary marijuana, labeled by strain
The fourth case grew out of a traffic stop. Officer Nolan Poindexter pulled over a Subaru Legacy at West Walnut and North 40th streets about 10:49 p.m. Aug. 12 for an improper lane change and smelled marijuana, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The driver, Elder Ariel Mancia, 24, showed a valid Arkansas medical marijuana card, but he was on probation with a search waiver on file and had a suspended license, the affidavit said. In a backpack on the passenger floorboard, officers found THC vape cartridges and five bags of pre-rolled joints labeled by strain, including “Chocolope,” “Maui Wowie” and “Durban Poison.” The products carried tags from a dispensary in Colcord, Oklahoma, the affidavit said.
Officers found about 50 grams of marijuana and THC products in all, along with about $100 in small bills, according to the affidavit.
Text messages on Mancia’s phones included one from a contact who wrote, “You sold me Sunday pens” and asked, “You got anything cheap?” Mancia told officers he was not selling but acknowledged he did not intend to use all of it himself, the affidavit said.
He was held on probable cause for possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance with the purpose to deliver, a Class D felony, two counts of unlawful use of a communication device and two misdemeanor medical marijuana violations. He posted a $10,000 bond through a bail bondsman Aug. 14 and is due back in court Oct. 26. Formal charges have not been filed.
Mancia also faces two pending felony cases in Washington County, one for methamphetamine possession from an April traffic stop and one for possessing about 50 grams of THC with the purpose to deliver in June. Both are set for jury trial Oct. 29.
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