The suspects were arrested on Feb. 4 in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Texas and New York.
Over 150 special agents with the FBI cuffed 48 of the 56 suspects during a multi-state operation on Wednesday. Seven suspects were already in custody and one was in talks with police to turn herself in.
All 56 suspects charged in the indictment were in custody as of Feb. 6, the FBI Atlanta office confirmed to The Epoch Times.
The final suspect turned herself in Friday morning, days after the large-scale arrests happened in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, and New York.
“The FBI’s goal in this investigation is not just to put people in handcuffs for a few days, but to build cases that cut to the capability of criminal enterprises, putting the worst offenders behind bars for long periods of time in order to keep our communities safe,” said Brian Austin, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta division.
The FBI’s Atlanta office, which started investigating this case in the southeastern coast of Georgia in 2023, accused suspects of traveling across state lines to source and sell drugs like fentanyl, methamphetamine, MDMA, cocaine, crack cocaine, and marijuana.
“Our investigation shows that members of this group were traveling to Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Jacksonville to source these drugs,” Austin said.
“Additionally, one of the indicted subjects communicated with a supplier in China, having drugs shipped directly to Brunswick.”
Suspects were charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. Others faced firearms charges.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey suspects the arrests will have long impacts in the community.
“Anytime you arrest this number of folks and have this long- and this wide-ranging of an operation, it’s going to have an effect,” Hosey said.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia Margaret Heap praised the FBI for its efforts to get suspected criminals off the streets.
“These crimes won’t be tolerated in our community,” Heap said.
“We’re going to go after anyone who continues to harm people in this community, and it’s through the collaboration of this law enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office that we were able to arrest these people, charge them, and indict them for these crimes.”
Law enforcement does not believe the drug organization had any direct ties to the main drug cartels.
FBI Director Kash Patel called the drug trafficking take down “one of our largest to date.”
“Every single day this FBI under President [Donald] Trump is going full throttle to dismantle [Drug Trafficking Organizations] across the country,” Patel wrote in an X post on Feb. 5.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/fbi-arrests-56-in-drug-trafficking-group-allegedly-tied-to-chinese-fentanyl-supplier-5981976
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