North Georgia drug agents said Tuesday they have taken more than a half million dollars worth of illegal drugs off the streets after they disrupted a marijuana distribution operation last week.
Mitchell Posey, Special Agent in Charge of the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office (ARDEO), said the drugs - along with cash - were discovered in locations in White, Habersham and Gwinnett counties.
Posey said agents were tipped off by concerned citizens who saw what they believed to be drug activity at the residence of Steven Pruitt, 33, on Rolling Ridge Drive in Cleveland.
"Appalachian agents began doing surveillance and interviews and learned that Pruitt was part of a larger organization that included one customer from Habersham County, whose name is William Ryan Crispin, 20, and then the people who were providing Pruitt with the marijuana...Evan Johnstone, 25, who is from Cleveland and graduated from White County High School, but he lives in Norcross now, and William Blake Moore," said Posey.
From that point, agents executed search warrants at Pruitt's home and found eight pounds of marijuana, 200 grams of THC wax and a number of firearms. Posey said the bulk of the drugs and cash was discovered at the Norcross townhome where Johnstone and Moore lived.
"We found 14 pounds of marijuana - it was shrink-wrapped or heat-sealed inside of a plastic bag," Posey said. "We found another 200 grams of the THC wax, which were either in a hard form placed in paper folds or was in more of a wax form in small cylinder containers."
Agents also discovered more than 100 vape cartridges and $42,169 in cash at the townhome.
Pruitt, Crispin and Johnstone have been arrested, according to Posey, but Moore remains at large.
Posey said Johnstone was arrested after a traffic stop in White County with $3,500 and THC wax in his possession. Crispin was arrested after a traffic stop in White County with marijuana and $9,584 in his possession; another $1,000 was found at his residence at Demorest Apartment Court in Habersham County.
While a large quantity of the marijuana was brought to Georgia from states that have legalized marijuana, Posey said investigators believe Johnstone and Moore also were producing their own THC wax, a form of marijuana that can have up to four times the THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content of regular marijuana. The higher content drives a higher price on the street, according to Posey.
"The extraction process of THC wax from the marijuana buds is a dangerous and potentially explosive process," Posey said.
Total dollar amount of the drugs seized was $546,000, according to Posey.
Posey said ARDEO received assistance in the investigation from the White County Sheriff’s Office, Habersham County Sheriff’s Office, the Cleveland Police Department, the Demorest Police Department, the Norcross Police Department and the Department of Community Supervision.
