SUMTER, S.C. (WACH, AP) -- Authorities say three Sumter men facing federal charges are tied to the drug conspiracy and racketeering case of a former South Carolina sheriff serving 17 years in prison.
The Sumter Item reports Thursday that Matthew Yates, Christopher Maurice Oaks and Jerome Jay face charges from illegally using a telephone to cocaine possession.
Former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin has been in federal prison since his November conviction on drug conspiracy and racketeering charges.
Melvin resigned in May after he and 11 others were charged with conspiring to deal drugs.
During Melvin's trial, another man testified he got worried when Melvin told him authorities thought he and Jay were dealing drugs. Larry Williams also said Melvin would remove his name from a list of suspected drug dealers for a fee and replace it with someone else's name.
Authorities say Melvin ruled his county like a kingpin. They claim he repeatedly took hundreds of dollars in handshake bribes to keep drug dealers out of trouble and also took kickbacks for catering barbecue dinners for county functions and contracts.
Prosecutors called Melvin's case the most audacious example of public corruption in South Carolina in the past two decades.
Yates, Oaks and Jay are expected in court June 21.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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