The Department of Justice recently released information on the dismantling of a drug trafficking organization in the Southern district of Georgia:
“A multi-agency operation in the Southern District of Georgia is receiving national recognition for dismantling a major drug trafficking organization whose methods included delivering contraband to prisons with drones and using funding from a lottery winner.”
DOJ
According to a report from WJCL, the Southern District’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) received the national award for Overcoming Technology Obstacles for Operation Cellmate.
Operation Cellmate is an investigation and prosecution of a transnational, multi-district drug trafficking organization that used gangs to distribute large quantities of methamphetamine throughout the Southeastern United States, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
Begun in 2014, Operation Cellmate was put into action when the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) learned that a drug trafficking organization, the Ghost Face Gangsters, was operating from within a Georgia Department of Corrections facility. The investigation identified Daniel Roger Alo, an associate of the Ghost Face Gangsters, as the leader of the criminal group from inside the prison where he was serving a life sentence for multiple violent felonies.
Alo developed a source of supply for methamphetamine from the Sinaloa Cartel, the Mexican crime syndicate previously operated by the notorious Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. In addition to other Ghost Face Gangsters, Alo recruited help from other violent street gangs, including the Bloods and Gangster Disciples.
By using drones and “compromised” prison guards, phones and contraband were smuggled into the prison. Conspirators used the devices to coordinate drug trafficking throughout the Southeast.
The largest seizure during a Brunswick, GA sting operation produced 10.9 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, more than $600,000 and multiple guns.
The methamphetamine had been bought with part of a $3 million Georgia lottery win by Ronnie Music.
The methamphetamine had been purchased with some of the $3 million won earlier in the Georgia Lottery by Ronnie Music. Music decided in 2016 to use his winnings to buy and sale meth, according to U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver. He was sentenced to time in federal prison, but years later, that investment turned out to be more successful than Tarver expected.
At the time, investigators said his co-conspirators attempted selling about 11 pounds of meth (with a street value of more than half a million dollars)
In 2016, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia indicted 21 defendants on drug trafficking and gun charges. Within a year, all defendants indicted pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a combined 170 years in federal prison.
The prisoners used drones, cellphones, Facebook and Green Dot cards to pull off their operation.
