Police: Castleton Square Mall shoe store used by suspected heroin dealer

A Castleton Square Mall shoe store was used as a front to deal heroin, authorities say.

A monthslong investigation by Muncie and state police that led to the arrests of 19 people uncovered the back-room operation in Circle City Sole in the northeast-side mall, according to court documents.

Upon serving a Sept. 11 search warrant, police found about 102 grams of heroin, a scale, video recording equipment, heat sealed bags and a “substantial amount of currency” hidden in a sliding compartment of a display case in the back room of the store, the documents said.

Danny Dewayne Terry II, 33, of Muncie, was arrested and charged last week with 14 drug-related crimes in Marion Superior Court. Authorities allege that Terry sold $2,500 worth of heroin out of the shoe store to a police informant in August and that the store was used to launder drug money.

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The owner of Circle City Sole, Anton Holland, is charged as a co-defendant. He told authorities that Terry was a co-owner even though Terry's name was not listed as such on official company documents. Secretary of state records list only Holland as a registered agent for the business.

A phone number listed for the store went straight to voicemail Monday afternoon. Messages left there by IndyStar were not immediately returned.

Les Morris, a spokesman for mall owner Simon Property Group, called the allegations "shocking."

"The store's lease has been terminated, and we are cooperating with law enforcement authorities on the investigation," he said in a written statement.

Authorities say Terry was the focus of a drug-dealing probe that involved heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana dealing in Indianapolis and Muncie and the inside help of a Delaware County sheriff's deputy, Jerry Parks, who is Terry's uncle. Parks was among the 19 arrested.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed in Marion County, Indiana State Police in June joined an investigation of Terry and his associates already underway by members of the Muncie Police Department’s narcotics unit.

According to that document:

Terry sold 30 grams of heroin to an informant for $2,500 in Muncie on July 16.

Terry sold an estimated 50 grams of heroin to an informant in early August and accepted a $2,500 payment at Circle City Sole.

An informant bought 40 grams of heroin, again for $2,500, from Terry at the shoe store on Aug. 31.

The Transportation Security Administration reported Terry had $36,000 in cash when he flew from Indianapolis to Los Angeles on June 13. “He claimed it was from his shoe store,” the report said.

Terry and Holland had $42,000 in cash when they flew from Indianapolis to Reno, Nev., on Aug. 16.

Authorities were granted permission to place a wiretap on Terry’s cellphone in late August and heard conversations about drug transactions and a large marijuana grow operation Terry had set up in a house in Lawrence. When a search warrant was served on the Lawrence house last week, authorities found 150 marijuana plants along with two assault rifles and a shotgun.

On Sept. 5, a Homeland Security agent determined Terry again was flying from Indianapolis to Reno, this time with $45,000 in cash that he indicated were shoe-store profits.

After he was arrested, Terry told officers he had “been dealing controlled substances, specifically marijuana and heroin, since he returned from serving a prison sentence a couple of years ago.”

The Marion County affidavit did not mention Terry’s dealings with his uncle, the Delaware County deputy.

However, authorities said Terry provided information about his uncle giving Terry inside information about undercover drug investigators and providing him with drugs seized during arrests, among other activities.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at (765) 213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.

Call IndyStar reporter Holly Hays at (317) 444-6156. Follow her on Twitter: @hollyvhays.

