More than a dozen people, including four Georgia inmates, are facing federal charges after prosecutors accused them of being part of a methamphetamine trafficking ring.
James Kristoffer Cantley, Jonathan Corey Daniel, Tiffany Christmas Hirani and Brian Duane Martz were among the 14 people indicted on methamphetamine conspiracy charges, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray. Authorities also charged 34-year-old Thomas Dewayne Simmons Jr. of Snellville with similar offenses, Murray said.
The federal indictment was unsealed in court Wednesday after a multi-agency operation focused on trafficking from Georgia to North Carolina. Members of the ring trafficked drugs in parts of western North Carolina from 2018 through April 2019, prosecutors said in a news release.
During the investigation, law enforcement discovered more than $250,000 in drug money and seized 23 firearms, according to the release.
In addition to methamphetamine conspiracy, Cantley, Daniel, Hirani and Simmons are each charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Cantley also faces charges of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession with intent to distribute heroin.
Cantley, 38, and Hirani, 33, are both housed at facilities in Clayton County, prosecutors said. Daniel, 31, is at Ware State Prison in Waycross. Martz, 40, is listed in online records as an inmate at the Georgia State Prison. The location of the facility is not specified.
The other people charged in the case are: Ruth Marie Duggar, 36, of Claremont, North Carolina; Kimberly Deann Bumgarner, 55, of Claremont, North Carolina; Cynthia Roxanne Shook, 34, of Catawba, North Carolina; Lowell Thomas Messer, 32, of Sherrills Ford, North Carolina; Samantha Jean Taylor, 26, of Newton, North Carolina; Jason Keith Reichard, 38, of Newton, North Carolina; Aaron Douglas Goodson, 29, of Maiden, North Carolina; Priscilla Chapman Lamber, 33, of Hickory, North Carolina; and Michael James Notheisen, 34, incarcerated in the North Carolina Department of Corrections.
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