FEDS SEIZE $6 MILLION OF METH, DISRUPTING MEXICAN PIPELINE

2 Duluth Homes Were Raided, 4 Men Arrested

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration seized 351 pounds of
crystal methamphetamine, authorities announced Wednesday.

The bust, made earlier this week, had a wholesale value of about $6
million, and ranks among the largest takes of the dangerous drug --
called "Ice" on the streets -- in the Eastern United States, said DEA
special agent in charge Rodney Benson.

"This is the largest seizure of methamphetamine east of the
Mississippi [River]," Benson said Wednesday at a press conference at
the Richard B. Russell Federal Building in downtown Atlanta.

In front of him were dozens of two-pound plastic bags filled with the
crystal that Benson said "rots the body from the inside out."

In addition to 20 pounds of meth in the process of being
"crystallized" and a number of freeze-dried packs of crystal meth, an
undisclosed amount of cash was displayed.

Authorities said DEA agents also took a kilogram of cocaine, and an
unspecified amount of acetone, the highly flammable chemical used to
"wash" methamphetamine of its "impurities" and crystallize the drug,
making it stronger.

"We suspect this meth will be an 80-90 percent purity range," Benson
said.

DEA agents, along with the area police from Atlanta's High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area task force raided two Duluth homes late Sunday
and early Monday, he said.

Four men were arrested at homes at [redacted].

Charged with felony trafficking are [redacted]. All are Mexican
natives and are being held without
bond in the Gwinnett County jail.

"This is typical of what we're seeing with the Mexican [drug]
cartels," Benson said. "They want to blend in to regular
neighborhoods. It appears no neighbors knew what was going on."

He said Mexican drug cartels, chief among them the Gulf Cartel and the
Sinaloa cartel, have targeted metro Atlanta as a throughway for
transporting drugs to markets on the Eastern seaboard.

"When you look at trying to feed those East Coast distribution cells,
metro Atlanta fits into a logical strategic ... shipment point," Benson
said. "It is 1,100 miles and a 15-hour drive from the distribution
point in Mexico. Then they parcel out to the different populations
centers."

Although officials have ruled out any connection between this bust and
a quadruple shooting Monday down the street from the Buckingham Place
home, that investigation continues, Benson said.

"Clearly, we will link this organization to the larger organization
responsible for bringing this to the metro Atlanta area," he said.