The late Ernie Navarre was known as the “Donut King” of Livingston Parish, Louisiana, but police say his son Jules is more of a drug kingpin than fried dough royalty.
For decades, Earnie Navarre sold his baked goods and pastries in the town of Springfield, and Jules can be seen working alongside his dad in multiple photographs on the Facebook page of Navarre’s Pastries. Ernie Navarre passed away on his 70th birthday in 2025, beloved by many in the community. Jules Navarre has been running Navarre’s Pastries ever since.
The popular shop known for its king cakes, donuts, and other baked goods is a community staple, so it came as a shock when it was raided last week and Navarre ended up behind bars on a variety of charges.
Sheriff’s deputies, alongside state authorities, discovered large amounts of nine types of drugs, 52 firearms, one of which was allegedly stolen from the Sheriff’s Office, and $3,550 after obtaining a search warrant for the property on Aug. 12.
“Upon executing the search warrant, agents uncovered a distribution hub for various narcotics including cocaine, MDMA and Adderall,” Sheriff Jason Ard said in a release.
Louisiana may be known for its “laissez les bons temps rouler” attitude, but even in the land of drive-thru daiquiri shops and flashing boobs for beads, the combination of illegal drugs and guns is going to lead to a bad time if police and prosecutors have anything to say about it.
Most of Navarre’s charges (52 of the 62, in fact) are for possessing a firearm in the presence of a controlled dangerous substance. He’s also charged with possessing a stolen firearm, and nine counts of possession with intent to distribute a variety of drugs, from cocaine to ecstasy to anabolic steroids.
The firearms that were seized from the shop are an odd assortment of bolt-action rifles, pump action shotguns, one AR-style rifle, and what appears to be a Japanese Type 11 machine gun. There were fewer than 30,000 of those firearms produced, and most of them were damaged and destroyed in World War II, so they’re pretty rare and worth a pretty penny. A Type II that went up for auction in 2017 was expected to go for at least $8,500 as much as $13,000, even though the auction house couldn’t guarantee it was still functional.
I’d love to know how that light machine gun ended up in a bakery in Springfield, Louisiana. Several Livingston Parish residents, though, are more interested in what happens to the gun going forward. There’ve been multiple inquiries on the sheriff’s Facebook post announcing the charges against Navarre from folks who want to know if any or all of the firearms that were seized will be auctioned off. The Type 11 has definitely received the bulk of attention, though at least one commenter was extremely interested in one of the shotguns that police took from the bakery.
Under Louisiana law, the sheriff could auction off the guns, but could also hold on to them, transfer them to another law enforcement agency, or sell them to an FFL. All of that, of course, depends on whether or not Navarre is convicted or pleads guilty, and right now he should still be presumed innocent.
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