Thirteen people were sentenced in Cobb County court for their role in dealing heroin throughout the county. The district attorney said that the 13 people arrested are associated with the gang known as Good Product Team. They pleaded guilty to charges of gang act violations and racketeering.
Twelve search warrants were issued in the investigation that led to 48 arrests, the district attorney said at a press conference. He also noted that the 13 people sentenced received a combined 285 years in prison.
More than three dozen others were sentenced to either court-ordered rehabilitation or probation and have been identified as users and addicts. The investigation spanned multiple years.
The district attorney said that the others arrested in the investigation have been given a chance to turn their lives around by receiving probation and rehabilitation sentences from the court.
The investigation was launched in July of 2013 by the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Crime Unit in conjunction with the Cobb Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit. The drugs were being sold at a business known as Tattoos by Ho, which had two locations in the county on South Cobb Parkway and Austell Road.
Police were called to one of the locations for a report of the owner being shot. Upon arrival, officers found heroin and other drug items. Only one person arrested in the investigation was charged with all 12 counts. The defendant pleaded guilty in 2016 to seven gang charges, racketeering, and two trafficking charges. Other charges included exercising leadership in a gang.
According to the judge presiding over the case, one of the suspects arrested during the investigation died of a heroin overdose prior to sentencing.
“This is a great example of law enforcement in Cobb County working together and working with the Cobb DA’s office,” the judge said. “We’re in the middle of a terrible heroin epidemic. We’ve lost more than 120 (people) in two years,”
An experienced criminal defense attorney can help you fight for your rights in a Cumming, Georgia, drug crimes case.