About 9 years ago I picked up a great niece I hadn't seen in years she had moved a out an hour a way from me. Plans were made I would pick her up and she would come spend a few days and see her cousins and we would go shopping,
When I arrived at her house she said something came up she couldn't leave right then until a friend could meet her to get a backpack she left in their car.. 2 hours later and she was extremely nervous I told her I thought it would be best I go on home if she can't get the backpack another time. I told her let's go eat and when we are done if your friend hasn't showed up I will come another time and get u. I end up going to get food to take back she was gone I was very put put and was heading home when she called and said could I pick her up at another friends house now and gave me directions, I decided I would I get there some man tells she will be right back ran to the locker?? Now I know something ain't right locker backpacks she is 20 it's 8:30 pm. I was leaving and call in her momma and she got dropped off and was ready to go.
I asked was there anything she wanted to tell me or was there any thing she had that should not be in my car and it was no auntie I wouldn't ever do stuff like that etc.
We get home late with the drive and all I had just got into bed when she knocked on our bedroom door and wanted to speak to me. She had asked could she drive my car which was brand new to a friends house she hasn't seen since she had left long ago. I said no mam but she is welcome to visit u here.. she went to bawling she said I can't I got to give somebody something I have to be able to count out 7300. And I can't do it here. I said for what and she finally told me it was not good but she had to get it to the person and have the cash exactly. . She said she couldn't tell me who had her backpack earlier because she didn't know someone was calling her when it's time to get it but they checked my house and your car was there and they changed their mind and watched me when I left to pick her up. She then was taken to a locker storage unit thing and she had to leave the another bag inside hers in a locker. She got left thwre and called her friend I was at and his daughter picked her up and dropped her by when I was leaving.
I told her I couldn't forgive her I have no clue what was in that bag that I helped transfer unknowingly but that excuse would have got me laughed at on my way to jail. She needs to call her mom and leave. She said someone was picking her up I said they are not to pull up in my driveway meet them in the street. She ended up staying with friends here and there and is no in Hawaii. But what I am getting at none of these runners knew the others no names just phones like go phones I guess. She didn't have a number to call they had hers they took her and left her where she was leaving something then she made it here. She later told me over the phone when she apologized to me that she was done with that it paid her well and it was only about every 3 months she would run it but it was good money. My point if it was anything like that they are probably clueless who they ate dealing with.
Your niece's story kinda reminds me of Piper Kerman's, the author of the memoir, "Orange is the New Black" (& the book that inspired the TV series on Netflix).
Right after college, she met and became fascinated with an older woman who lived a spontaneous, "bohemian" lifestyle. The older woman only dated other women and Piper had only dated men. Nevertheless, Piper started hooking up with the woman, who told her, straight up, that she was part of an international heroin trafficking network. But instead of being worried or not wanting to get involved with all that, she found it exciting. So, she spent the next few months traveling around the world, to places like Bali and Paris, and transported drug money (but never the drugs themselves) for an network based out of West Africa.
She ended her relationship a few months later because she realized she was getting too involved. She got nailed 10 years later anyway (and only months before the statute of limitations expired). She was charged with criminal conspiracy and served a 15 month sentence in a federal prison. She knew next to nothing about the guys at the top and could have reduced her sentence significantly (if not completely) if she had.
Anyway, that's just another classic example of how the drug trade works. The people on the lower levels know very little, or nothing at all, about the people on the higher levels.
So, I definitely agree with you about this. If a large organized crime organization is responsible for these deaths (regardless if they are cartel, gang members, or a large organized group of drug dealers), no one at this level---meaning on the ground in Pike County---will know anything of use to LE. Some of their family may know who the Rhoden family dealt with directly, but I seriously doubt they know any more than that. And the family members who were managing these pot grows probably didn't know themselves.
Most of the guys at the top of these organizations live outside of the US, and they never come to the US. The next guy in line comes instead. Guy #2 then hires a big time drug dealer and the drugs and money are exchanged at one time, in large quantities. Guy #3 (who knows nothing about Guy #1) hires his own guys to handle growing/selling, and so on, and so forth. The person/s managing these three pot grows was working on a 4th level tier, at best.
I'm very concerned that the people who did this may never be found (IF these murders were related to drugs). It's unlikely anyone with info will be willing to come forward with it, and even if they did tell LE what they know, the trail would likely end with the next guy up.)