By: BRENNAN LEATHERS
12/11/2007
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A Bainbridge police officer participated in two large-scale operations coordinated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in the Atlanta metropolitan area, according to a news release.
Bainbridge Public Safety Chief Investigator Frank Green, who is also a Deputy DEA agent for Southwest Georgia, went to Atlanta last week as part of two operations, which seized large amounts of illegal drugs, millions of dollars in cash and at least 32 firearms, including handguns and assault rifles, City Manager Chris Hobby confirmed Wednesday.
Federal, state and local agents completed the initial searches and arrests in two multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency investigations coordinated through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) program.
The investigations targeted major Mexican drug trafficking organizations that smuggled cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the United States for distribution in Georgia, California, North Carolina, New York and elsewhere. These investigations focused on two separate Mexican-based drug organizations that regularly cooperated in using transportation routes into and out of the Atlanta area.
Hobby said the DEA operations took illegal drugs and related money and firearms off the streets permanently, keeping them out of their destination points, even small cities like Bainbridge.
"We're very supportive of the work Frank has done with the DEA," Hobby said. "Generally what we get here locally we think of as small players. It's good when we get to strike a blow at the big guys."
The evidence seized during the searches and arrests just over the past two days includes 111 kilograms of cocaine, 17 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, approximately $8 million to $10 million in cash and at least 32 firearms, including handguns and assault rifles. The two operations, begun in 2006, have resulted in the arrest of 47 people, many of them Mexicans living in the Atlanta area, and the execution of 245 search warrants.
Investigators determined that the targeted organizations regularly transported large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon, Guerrero, and Michoacan to the Atlanta area, and then transported currency accumulated from the sale of the drugs back through Atlanta to be smuggled across the southwest border to Mexico.