James_September-October_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 71
We are incredibly fortunate
to be Americans, enjoying freedoms and opportunities that must
be protected. As the United States
Attorney for the Middle District
of Georgia, it is my honor to work
alongside law enforcement and
dedicated prosecutors on the forefront of some of the nation’s most
significant prosecutions targeting
dangerous cartels, fentanyl traffickers, antisemitic threats, crimes
against children, fraudsters and
more. We are committed to holding
offenders accountable and ensuring people can live free from fear in
Georgia and beyond.
Operation Take Back America is a nationwide initiative that
marshals the full resources of the
Department of Justice to repel the
invasion of illegal immigration, to
achieve the total elimination of
cartels and transnational criminal
organizations, and to protect our
communities from the perpetrators
of violent crime. Our office is prioritizing these cases across the 70
counties in this district.
Operation Sweet Silence,
based out of Columbus, eliminated a violent criminal street gang,
which two Mexican cartels were
supplying. From this highly successful, large-scale law enforcement operation, $270 million in
drugs were seized nationwide,
119 illegal weapons were removed
from the streets, and 30 defendants have been convicted. These
individuals now face lengthy sentences in federal prison with no
parole. Violent crime in Columbus
has since significantly decreased.
In Athens, two men were
recently convicted at trial for
distributing cocaine and fentanyl,
supplied by a cartel. They face life
in prison. Twenty-six kilograms of
cocaine and fentanyl were seized
along with dozens of firearms— not
far from the University of Georgia
campus. This investigation was led
by the Homeland Security Task
Force, a government-wide partnership focused on dismantling
transnational criminal organizations around the world. As the FBI
SWAT team closed in to make the
arrest, one defendant frantically called his supplier in Mexico,
ordering the drug delivery truck to
“turn around.” Yes, the message to
the cartels is clear: turn the trucks
around and stop poisoning our
communities or face federal prison.
Criminals, like the rest of us, are
using technology to their advantage. Fortunately, law enforcement
has quickly adapted. In Macon, an
indictment was recently unsealed
charging 12 individuals in a vast
alleged conspiracy using drones to
smuggle contraband, such as drugs
and cell phones, into 10 prisons
across eight states. This is the
largest federal prosecution to date
involving coordinated drone smuggling into federal prisons, and it’s
unfolding right here in the Middle
District of Georgia.
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