HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. (FOX 56) – A Kentucky high school basketball coach has been charged with drug trafficking after a federal investigation.

The Hopkinsville Police Department said multiple agencies executed search warrants in Hopkinsville involving 30-year-old Melvin Brown. Authorities seized large amounts of U.S. currency, a handgun, and illicit drugs.

Brown was then served an indictment warrant.

The Department of Justice said the search warrants were for four different locations associated with Brown and on multiple bank accounts. The news release said that the authorities recovered $100,000 in cash, $164,000 from bank accounts, marijuana, fentanyl, and a firearm.

Brown is charged with one count of drug conspiracy; two counts of laundering of monetary instruments; and 14 counts of use of a communication facility in committing, causing and facilitating the commission of a drug trafficking felony. 

According to the release, Brown is accused of conspiring with others to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

The DOJ said the cocaine was allegedly imported from Mexico and transported by couriers in vehicles to Oklahoma and to Brown in Kentucky. The conspirators would use coded language to talk about the drugs calling cocaine “ceiling paint” and currency “paper. The practice of using coded language while talking about drugs is well-known by authorities.

The release said payments were mostly made using banks in the Northern District of Oklahoma and elsewhere. Brown is charged in the indictment with making two financial transactions designed to conceal the nature and origin of the illicit proceeds.

Brown is scheduled for a detention hearing on Friday.  

Brown was a former boys basketball coach at University Heights Academy where he was recognized by the Kentucky Association of Basketball Coaches as Coach of the Year for District Two. The school posted an opening for a boys basketball coach on Thursday.