More than 60 defendants charged in series of indictments targeting major gang-related transnational drug traffickers

SAVANNAH, GA: A series of federal indictments unsealed in the Southern District of Georgia charges more than 60 defendants with felonies targeting interrelated, gang-affiliated transnational drug trafficking conspiracies that provided a pipeline of illegal drugs to coastal and south Georgia.

The investigation and indictments grew from recent drug trafficking prosecutions in Operation Vanilla Gorilla, which sent 43 felons to federal prison, and Operation Who’s Laughing Now, with 19 felons sentenced to prison, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. The investigations and prosecutions, under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, targeted widespread, gang-related drug trafficking organizations in the Southern District and beyond.

“The relentless, deliberate and systematic focus on large drug-trafficking rings, particularly those that use criminal street gangs to funnel narcotics from drug cartels into the Southern District, continues to disrupt and dismantle these poison-peddlers in our community,” said U.S. Attorney Christine. “It takes a network to defeat criminal gangs, and the collaboration with our law enforcement partners provides a powerful and effective network.”

The indictments in Operation Krack Down I and II, and Operation Stranded Bandit, allege the drug trafficking schemes began as early as 2017, and operated in Chatham, Liberty, Bryan, McIntosh, Wayne, Glynn, Tattnall, Effingham and Long counties, and in surrounding communities. The conspiracy transported illegal drugs into the Southern District from Mexico and Atlanta, aided by multiple criminal street gangs. In addition to the violent white supremacist Ghost Face Gangsters, gang affiliations among the defendants include the Chicago-based Almighty Simon City Royals; La Raza/SUR 13; Bloods; Vice Lords; Gangster Disciples; and Aryan Brotherhood.

As described in court documents, the defendants – many of them previously convicted felons – used their gang affiliations to aid in drug distribution while promoting “a climate of fear.” Some of the defendants, while incarcerated on state charges at the Georgia Department of Corrections Coastal Transition Center in Savannah, recruited others to the conspiracy and planned trafficking operations.

Led by agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), investigators from the Chatham County Police Department, the Savannah-Chatham Counter Narcotics Team (CNT) and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies seized multiple kilograms of methamphetamine, along with large amounts of heroin and cocaine. Investigators also seized more than 60 illegally possessed firearms, with 19 of the defendants indicted on a total of 37 firearms-related offenses.

>https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdga/pr/more-60-defendants-charged-series-indictments-targeting-major-gang-related