01/15/13 Shortly after 1:00 p.m. Monday members of the Indiana State Police ERS (Emergency Response Section) assisted the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and members of the Marshall County Drug Task Force and the Plymouth Police Department in serving a search warrant in rural southern Marshall County. The Argos home is located at 5663 18th Road, at the intersection of Filbert and 18th Road.

  Authorities had obtained a search warrant for the trailer from a previous investigation that was conducted by the Marshall County Drug Task Force. Police suspected that the subjects that were staying at the residence were possibly armed.

Emergency Response Officers arrived at the house and detonated a flash bang (loud percussion device) near the front door and contacted the occupants with a loud speaker. Within five minutes, a male subject, Mark Howard, and a female subject Stephanie Johnson, exited the trailer at the commands of the officers. However, a third subject, Billie Minix, refused to exit.

  After attempting to talk with Minix for several minutes and getting no response, the ERS officers broke open two windows and the west wall of the trailer with a Humvee and a push bar. At approximately 1:45 p.m. they shot tear gas into the home in an effort to get Minix to surrender. Minix gave up without incident 30 minutes later when he exited the west end of the house.

  Billie J. Minix, 50, of Knox was initially arrested for a parole violation warrant through Knox County. However, Minix may be facing additional charges in Marshall County. Mark B. Howard, 29, of 5663 18th Rd., currently faces a felony charge of dealing meth. Stephanie Johnson, 36, of Plymouth, was arrested on an outstanding warrant for probation violation in Marshall County. Prior to the house being raided, a fourth subject, Shawn Speirs, 40, of Argos, was stopped by a Marshall County Deputy on a traffic stop and arrested on a felony warrant for dealing meth. Speirs is an associate of Minix and Howard. All four subjects were taken to the Marshall County Jail.

*All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.