Tapped phones, informants help send dealers in Macon drug ring to federal prison
A sprawling Macon-area drug-dealing ring that the authorities wiped out after zeroing in on it two summers ago has since led to federal convictions of 20 people.
In recent days, the convictions resulted in prison sentences totaling nearly 40 years for four people with various roles in the meth-and-marijuana-peddling organization. The illicit operation and tentacles of it sold drugs from discount motel rooms in west Macon’s Eisenhower Parkway corridor.
One drug agent has said motel rooms that dealers rented there near the Interstate 475 interchange were, in essence, “Walmarts for drugs.”
On Thursday, the U.S. attorney’s office in Macon announced sentences for a man and three women who pleaded guilty to crimes that included conspiracy to distribute meth.
A key player in the ring, Cartney “Blue” Pitts, 37, of Macon, will spend a decade and a half in federal prison. Others convicted recently include Shauna M. Bush, 26, and Stephanie D. Davis, 32, who were each sentenced to about 10 years behind bars.
Dubbed “Operation Extended Stay,” the investigation was launched after dozens of complaints about drug dealing and other crime in the well-traveled motel-and-restaurant district along the freeway.
On Friday, Bibb County Sheriff David Davis said the arrests and subsequent convictions have no doubt put “a significant dent” in crime there.
“We’re glad those folks are getting sentenced and sent away,” the sheriff said.
Tracking down drug dealers
Information in court documents from cases involving the dealers who were convicted details some of the ways the cops surveilled the narcotics ring and relied on tapped cellphones and confidential informants shut it down
When arrested, some of the dealers ratted out their associates. Of the 20 convicted, all but one pleaded guilty.
The probe was launched in early summer 2019. In the following months and on into the fall, investigators made more than half a dozen undercover drug buys and listened in on suspected dealers’ phone calls.
Pitts, the authorities learned, had a supplier named Robert Lee “Lil Pumpkin” Whisby, who had ties to Macon and east Atlanta. Whisby, 46, has since been sentenced to 20 years in prison. It was Pitts who after his own arrest implicated Whisby, telling the cops that he bought a kilo or two at a time from Whisby.
Pitts also sold meth to “numerous individuals,” court filings note, including Bush and Stephanie Davis. Pitts, the investigators learned, stashed some of his drugs at a house on Steven Drive that was rented by his aunt.
Sheriff’s investigators working with the FBI were monitoring Pitts’ cellphones. They caught one of the dealers who Pitts sold meth to after listening to a call Pitts made. After the dealer Pitts had sold meth to was arrested, the cops overheard Pitts telling a supplier that they needed to change their phone numbers.
But it was too late.
Sheriff Davis said Friday that while it is possible, if not certain, that other dealers will fill the void left by the prison-bound dealers, those who do should take heed.
“Just know,” the sheriff said, “we are watching.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 10:49 AM.