The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday revealed the arrest of 12 people they say are linked to a stolen gun and drug trafficking ring. It’s an investigation that remains open and will likely “stretch into other metro counties.”
Sgt. Ashley Henson with the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office tells WSB Radio this all began with a report of about 100 guns stolen from one location - from an individual (not a gun store) - in Paulding County in late January.
From there, Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force agents and Paulding County Sheriff’s Office deputies “executed four different search warrants at four different locations (Dallas and Hiram) in Paulding County. Several firearms were recovered at those locations, along with others at locations in Carroll and Douglas counties after leads led detectives there. “(All together) they were actually able to recover about 68 of the stolen 100 guns,” says Henson.
The searches also uncovered an array of illegal drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin, ecstasy, cocaine, prescription pills, and marijuana. $3,636 in U.S. currency was also found.
“No matter what it is, whether it’s stolen guns or other items, goes hand-in-hand with illegal narcotics and so, just a laundry list of the different types of narcotics that were seized in these particular incidents,” says Henson.
Over a few days’ time from late January, agents and investigators tracked down and arrested 12 people. Suspects range in age from 26 to 57 - male and female.
“You’ve got 12 individuals who I’m pretty sure are no stranger to jail, and really glad to get those individuals in custody.”
Henson says time is of the essence in wide-ranging and complex investigations like these. “Once you’ve made an arrest you’ve got to make sure that you get as much information as you can to go and try to find the rest of the guns before they go underground and get gone.”
Henson says the cooperation of multiple investigative units that ends in disruption of trafficking rings like these lets those people involved know “...we’re not going to put up with that stuff here in Paulding or Haralson County or any of the other surrounding counties. We mean business.”
The investigation was a joint effort of the Haralson-Paulding Drug Task Force and the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office.