BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A newly-unsealed indictment names 76 people as part of a plan to move large amounts of drugs into Southeast Georgia, and much of the conspiracy operated from inside Georgia state prisons, the U.S. Department of Justice for the Southern District of Georgia announced Wednesday.
The indictment in Operation Ghost Busted, a gang-related drug trafficking investigation, was announced Wednesday afternoon during a news conference at the Glynn County Police Department headquarters in Brunswick.
“This is the largest indictment in the history of the Southern District of Georgia,” said FBI Atlanta Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jermaine Deans.
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The 118-count, 133-page indictment charges the 76 suspects with involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy that distributed large amounts of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin and alprazolam in the greater Glynn County area.
Two of the suspects are also charged with the distribution of drugs — fentanyl and methamphetamine — that resulted in the deaths of three people from drug overdoses.
“Illegal distribution of drugs is not a victimless crime. The grave markers of Elizabeth Cain, of LaGrange, Michael Logue, of Brunswick, and Dylan Jones, of Brunswick, bear silent witness to the toll that these illegal drugs flow into our communities and we are here to tell you today that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners in Southeast Georgia are not going to tolerate it,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia David Estes.
For more than two years, investigators from multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies collaborated to identify a sprawling drug trafficking network operating in Southeast Georgia counties that included Glynn, Pierce, Camden, and Ware. Prosecutors said the conspiracy operated inside and outside state prison facilities with assistance from at least one compromised corrections officer, who worked with a leader of the conspiracy who is serving a life sentence for murder.
Those inmates and suspects outside the prison included gang members of the Ghost Face Gangsters, Gangster Disciples, the Bloods and the Aryan Brotherhood, according to prosecutors.
The indictment also lists the forfeiture of 43 seized firearms, one vehicle and more than $53,000 in cash.
A multi-agency law enforcement operation took into custody defendants who weren’t already in jail or prison. FBI SWAT teams from Atlanta, Jacksonville and Birmingham were part of the roundup.
Every suspect named in that indictment is facing 10 years up to life in prison if convicted.