PDF: Press Release Meth Charges
A local drug ring was responsible for selling more than two tons of methamphetamine in the last four years across Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina, authorities say.
Now 23 people are set be arraigned this morning in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga on drug charges that could land them in prison for life following their sweeping arrests late Wednesday night.
“This was a major source of meth trafficking in the region,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Neff said Thursday. “It is a very significant case.”
Those arrested include men and women ranging in age from 31 to 55 years old. Seven defendants are from Cleveland, Tenn.
The arrests were the result of a four-year investigation by multiple local and federal law enforcement agencies that eventually led investigators to Marietta, Ga., where they discovered most of the “ice” methamphetamine was being manufactured.
Several other people not part of the arrests Wednesday already have been convicted for participating in the ring, Mr. Neff said, and were responsible for pointing authorities to the main source of the drugs in North Georgia.
While much of the meth produced in the United States still comes from homemade labs, the trafficking of the drug in mass quantities had become more prevalent in Tennessee and surrounding regions because of the crackdown over the years on the small labs, authorities say.
Mr. Neff said that is a major reason the large meth ring had been able to thrive.
“These people filled that gap in the market,” Mr. Neff said.
U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick, who supervises federal law enforcement in Eastern Tennessee, emphasized in a written statement that the “scourge of methamphetamine” continues to plague the region.
“Hopefully these arrests will diminish the availability of this drug on the streets,” Mr. Dedrick stated.