The Polk County Sheriff’s Office revealed on Thursday that an investigation, known to local officials as “Operation Dirty Water”, uncovered over 1,400 pounds of meth and other drugs being transported across states with a street value of nearly $54 million.
Sheriff Grady Judd called the seizure “the largest in the history of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office” and that it included 1,342 pounds of liquid meth, 63 kilos of crystal meth, 25 pounds of THC edibles, and 2,544 Xanax pills.
The probe began last January when a female inmate at the county jail received a package of Xanax pills only to be intercepted by guards.
Arrests followed the incident including that of Jennifer Meers of Stone Mountain who sold 26 pounds of meth to an informant in Polk County. Meers was under five-year probation.
“That 10 years in federal prison didn’t slow her down at all,” Sheriff Judd commented. “The fact that…she wasn’t supposed to leave Georgia didn’t make a difference at all.”
Tracking down Meers’ provider, detectives named a Juarez Cartel member, Isidoro Palacios, who led them to the incarcerated mastermind of the drug ring: Atlanta inmate Brian Stanton.
“This is not a horrible fairytale, it’s the truth,” Judd said. “This guy organized and set up all of this operation from home sweet home: The federal penitentiary in Atlanta, GA.”
A report added that “several law enforcement officers were involved in Operation Dirty Water, including those within the Haines City Police Department, US Border Patrol, and other federal and Georgia agencies.”
