Large meth ring operated out of Southwood trailer park
Two men are set to be sentenced today in federal court in Charlottesville for their role in a drug-trafficking pipeline that funneled Mexican methamphetamine into Southwood Mobile Home Park, according to officials.
From Southwood, the meth was parceled out for sale as far away as Lexington, according to Brian McGinn of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.
Charlottesville itself wasn’t a major market for the drug, said city police Lt. Don Campbell, who heads the local narcotics task force. Rather, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Healey, the trailer park was used as a distribution hub...
Confidential witnesses have told police that at least as early as December 2009 dealers were making the trips to Georgia...(More)
Excessive cutting of the drug was sometimes a source of conflict among the dealers, Campbell said...
The meth coming in from Mexico is cooked in labs there, and is quite pure to start with, according to Campbell.
“It’s not the cheap biker-type meth or the meth that people cook locally,” he said.
Even people relatively low in the now-dismantled organization were selling relatively large quantities of the drug, Campbell said.
Campbell described the local operation as being led by Salmeron-Duque, with a more loosely organized group below him.
“They said that they were the main source for meth [in Central Virginia] at that time,” Campbell said.
Two other articles, neither of which mention the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force’s role:
Two Men Involved in Meth Ring Face Jail Time and Deportation
Two Men Sentenced in Connection with Albemarle County Drug Ring
