Ridgeland man sentenced to 25 years for drug trafficking

A Ridgeland man was sentenced to 25 years in prison last week after he pleaded guilty to trafficking narcotics, the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office said. 

Christopher Ray Smith, 43, had been charged with two counts of trafficking heroin, trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking cocaine, three counts of possession with intent to distribute oxycodone, two counts of possession within intent to distribute amphetamine, two counts of possession with intent to distribute buprenorphine, and possession with intent to distribute alprazolam. 

The solicitor’s office said Smith pleaded guilty to 12 charges that stemmed from separate incidents in April 2019, January 2020 and July 2020. 

“During each incident, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies found Smith with various types of drugs, thousands of dollars in cash and drug paraphernalia,” a solicitor’s office news release said. 

Smith was found to have “16 oxycodone pills, a large amount of cash and a drug ledger” in April 2019, the release said. In a January 2020 traffic stop near Port Royal, deputies “found six kinds of drugs, including heroin with fentanyl, a drug often given to the terminally ill for pain relief.” 

Deputies found “cash and items consistent with the distribution of narcotics” when they were called to a Beaufort hotel in July 2020, the release said. 

“The hotel manager told officers Smith had rented the room for quite a while and paid each day with cash,” the release said. “Also inside, deputies discovered more than 12 grams of methamphetamine, 66.23 grams of fentanyl-laced heroin, 109 pills of amphetamine, 30 pouches of buprenorphine with Naloxone and six pills and 39 pills of oxycodone.” 

Smith has previous convictions for shoplifting, open container, failure to stop for a blue light, burglary, grand larceny, possession of a pistol by a prohibited person, driving under suspension and driving under the influence, the release said. 

“This defendant is the root cause of many destroyed lives and addictions,” said Samantha Molina of the 14th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who prosecuted the case. “People in our community are committing crimes as a result of their addictions. He is one of those feeding those addictions. The vehicle he was driving was essentially a rolling pharmacy of illicit drugs.”