Instagram post leads to drug, gun arrests
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A post on social media led Indianapolis police to suspected drug traffickers who also had illegal guns.
Court documents show detectives saw DeJuan Taylor, 20, dancing around and holding a gun on his Instagram story. That post sparked the investigation that eventually led to his arrest and the arrest of Ghakel Weathers, 20. Both men are from Indianapolis.
Pounds of marijuana and about 3 ounces of meth were taken off the street because of the investigation that led them to an apartment complex on the west side. That is where detectives tracked down Taylor after he posted the video of him holding a gun.
Taylor was already facing a charge of possessing a machine gun in Hamilton County, so it was illegal for him to have a gun.
When detectives tracked Taylor to the apartments, they saw Weathers holding a gun and going in and out of a breezeway at the apartments.
Weathers was on house arrest at the time after pleading guilty to possessing a machine gun in Marion County, so it was also illegal for him to be holding a gun.
Police first arrested Taylor during a traffic stop after they found guns in the car.
Next, they got a search warrant for Weathers’ apartment. That’s where they found the marijuana, meth, and more guns, including one with a machine gun conversion device on it, turning it into a fully automatic gun.
“Being able to get those five guns off the street, one of which included a machine gun conversion device, we can’t say just what we prevented by getting these off the streets,” said Officer Drew Brown with Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. “These two individuals were known violent offenders.”
IMPD says the Indiana Crime Guns Task Force focuses its efforts on suspected criminals such as Taylor and Weathers.
Brown said, “Here in 2024 alone, they’ve (the task force has) taken 125 crime guns off the street and upward of 90 violent offenders.”