MAN GETS 30 YEARS FOR AIDING METH PRODUCTION

CHATTANOOGA -- A garden center owner convicted of selling iodine used
to make methamphetamine in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama was
sentenced to 30 years in prison by a judge who said he hopes the
penalty shows such harmful greed has a high price.

Joseph Swafford was escorted from the courtroom after declining to
comment at his Friday sentencing, which also included forfeiting his
family business, Broadway Home and Garden Center, to the government.

Swafford's attorney had asked U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier
for a 10-year sentence.

A jury in March convicted Swafford on all 40 counts of an indictment
that charged him and his business with conspiring to aid illegal
drug-making by selling iodine to customers who used it to make meth,
an addictive stimulant.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Piper said the three-year investigation
included an agent warning Swafford that the iodine he was selling
went to customers using it to make the drug in Tennessee, north
Georgia and north Alabama.

Collier said the large scale of knowingly selling an ingredient for
making the drug was unprecedented in East Tennessee.

He said evidence showed Swafford sold enough iodine -- more than
2,500 gallons of liquid iodine and almost 3,000 pounds of iodine
flakes and pellets -- to manufacture more than 400 kilograms of meth,
enough to supply "every human being" in southeastern Tennessee and
some counties in surrounding states.

Collier said the 30-year sentence would hopefully "deter those who
might be tempted to make the same bad choice you made."