Tim Evans, and Mark Alesia

IndyStar

It was already a crazy story — a preacher, his tiny congregation in Irvington, two married cops and an Indianapolis Public Schools teacher involved in an alleged international drug ring.

But the “Spice Road” story IndyStar told last October — about a Central Indiana synthetic marijuana ring reminiscent of “Breaking Bad” — has gotten even wackier as more details have emerged.

Most notable: the deep connection of key players to Russell Taylor, now in federal prison on unrelated child pornography charges. Other new twists involve swinger love potions, bribery and an insanity plea.

IndyStar investigation: Indy's spice road

The arrest Jan. 14 of former Hendricks County sheriff’s deputy Jason Woods provided many of the new details, including his close friendship to Taylor.

Almost as strange as the bizarre cast of characters is the fact that the arrests of these close friends — Taylor and Woods — appear to be completely unrelated. They were handled by different law enforcement agencies pursuing different investigations. Neither defendant was suspected in the other's alleged or proven crimes.

Both men were also longtime friends with Robert Jaynes, the fundamentalist pastor at the center of the drug ring. Woods is alleged to have used his authority as a police officer to assist Jaynes, according to charges, and accepted trips to Las Vegas as a reward.

The two cases, viewed together, provide a rare glimpse into the bizarre lives of a group of friends whose "day jobs" were in law enforcement, nonprofit youth outreach and old-time evangelical religion.

It was a lucrative business. Jaynes, according to the new information, spent more than $1 million over eight months in 2013 to purchase supplies to make the illegal drug. It’s not clear how much he earned from selling thousands of pounds of spice, but he traveled extensively, paid for trips for Woods, and often took his congregation out for “big fancy” dinners, and picked up the tab.

Jaynes and other players weren't always flush with cash. Jaynes and Woods had filed for bankruptcy within the previous decade.

Protection, paranoia

Jason Woods played a much larger role in the drug operation than previously known, prosecutors allege.

Previously, prosecutors characterized Woods as someone given $250,000 to hold for Doug Sloan, an Indianapolis man who admitted in new court records that he introduced Jaynes to the synthetic drug business. Sloan, who had worked with Jaynes in the mortgage business in the 1990s, is also under federal indictment for his alleged role in the spice ring.

Woods was instructed to hand off the money to an associate of Sloan's in a McDonald's parking lot. The man who was supposed to receive the money claimed Woods never showed up. But the deputy said he did indeed hand off the money, making sure it was the right person by using the code phrase Sloan gave him: "The pearl is in the river."

New details after the recent arrest contradict statements Woods' wife made to investigators. In 2014, Teresa Woods stated she believed they were unwitting accomplices duped by a preacher, Jaynes, who talked to them about God.

Jason and Teresa Woods were charged with misdemeanors in Boone County for possessing "bath salts," a synthetic drug similar to ecstasy, after the missing money drew scrutiny from the Sheriff's Department where they worked. They entered into a diversion program.

But now prosecutors contend Woods used his law enforcement job and police vehicle to provide protection for the drug ring. That included escorting drug shipments and providing an air of security and legitimacy by parking his police car at manufacturing sites.

Woods’ involvement, however, went beyond creating a perception to deceive outsiders, according to court documents. He helped unload trucks of drugs and was among those who wrote personal checks to vendors for thousands of dollars.

Police said he also went to Jaynes’ office in a drug warehouse to scan for listening devices. Jaynes, the document said, was “paranoid” about competitors who might try to undermine his operation.

Woods even allowed Jaynes to drive an SUV registered to the police officer. Jaynes, investigators learned, would not drive vehicles registered in his name.

Work and play

But the tie between Jaynes and Woods wasn’t just business.

Woods and his wife attended Jaynes’ church and socialized with the pastor and his wife. They worked out together at a New Palestine farmhouse where the drugs were made. They attended concerts at the same warehouse where the ring made drugs.

Sloan said he first met Jason and Teresa Woods, who also was a sheriff’s deputy, at one of those concerts in 2012. Taylor was there with the couple, Sloan told investigators. The concert featured a band that included Jaynes and his son. Only at those shows, Jaynes wasn't strumming an acoustic guitar and playing the gospel hymns he performed in church. He was playing an electric guitar and performing alternative rock.

After the concert hosted by the rocking evangelical preacher, according to court documents, the Woodses, Sloan and Taylor went to a strip club.

Sloan told investigators that Taylor, who had worked with him in the mortgage business years earlier, had been “friends for years” with Woods. Taylor’s mother once dated Woods’ father. Both spent much of their youth in the small community of Mooresville. Taylor modeled for several photos posted on a website for Woods' business, Black Ice Photography.

The IndyStar investigation revealed their relationship went much deeper than a casual friendship. They consumed illegal drugs together, according to court documents.

In public court documents before his sentencing in December, Taylor told a psychologist about his longtime swinger lifestyle. He said he “engaged in ‘swinging’ with his wife and other couples, as well as ‘orgies.’” He also said he was a member of a swingers club.

Before Woods’ first arrest, last year, police found a safe the couple tried to hide at a relative's home. It contained $88,000. Police also found a cache of drugs — pills for erectile dysfunction and "bath salts," a mood-altering synthetic drug. Online swinger sites commonly recommend the combination of those drugs to prolong and enhance group sex.

In an interview with police last year, Teresa Woods acknowledged she and her husband had tried bath salts. But she insisted that was before the drugs were illegal. Sloan told police that the Woodses were “heavily involved with consuming bath salts.” One those brands, called “Meow,” was produced by Sloan’s brother Greg.

Sloan said he, Taylor and the Woodses also smoked spice on numerous occasions. At that time, spice was illegal and both Woodses were working for the Sheriff’s Department.

Teresa Woods has not been charged with any crime related to Jaynes’ alleged drug operation.

'Pay until your dying day'

In 2013, investigators began intercepting packages of illegal materials from China bound for use by Jaynes and Parsons to make spice.

Jaynes was arrested in May 2014 after Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted several shipments of illegal spice ingredients from China. That was the beginning of the end for the alleged drug operation.

That same year, a local informant tipped law enforcement to Taylor's child pornography, which led to his downfall and, famously, to that of his boss, former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle.

The Jaynes and Taylor cases were separate and unrelated.

Now, Taylor is in prison. Jaynes appears to be negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to court records. But a hearing to finalize that deal has been delayed three times and is now set for March 3 in St. Louis.

Several others in the case also await their fate in federal court:

• Sloan, the former traveling clown and Libertarian candidate for the Indiana Senate.

• Kirk Parsons, the pastor’s friend, brother-in-law and alleged partner in the multimillion-dollar business.

• David Neal, a former partner of Sloan’s from Carmel. His attorney has notified the court that he might use an insanity defense.

• Roger Upchurch, a longtime Indianapolis businessman who once sponsored a car in the Indianapolis 500 and admitted last year to being a "leading member of the international drug-trafficking organization."

Neither Sloan nor Parsons has a date set for a plea in the same court.

Upchurch still awaits sentencing in federal court in Indianapolis after pleading guilty.

Neal, who is alleged to have made drugs sold by Doug Sloan, admitted last month that he violated the conditions of his bond. Prosecutors played a voice mail Neal left for his pretrial officer. Neal said the officer would "… pay until your dying … day because you are nobody." Neal threatened to spit in the officer's face.

A judge ordered him to have a psychiatric exam.

Call IndyStar reporter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim. Call IndyStar reporter Mark Alesia at (317) 444-6311. Follow him on Twitter: @markalesia.