‘You are feeding the addiction.’ Macon cocaine kingpin sentenced in case linked to cartel
One of Macon and Middle Georgia’s most prolific modern-day drug kingpins was sentenced Monday to 40 years in prison for his role as the orchestrator of a narcotics ring that brought in upwards of 40 kilograms of cocaine a month with plans to double that amount.
Dexter Lee Williams, who at age 53 was described by prosecutors as a career drug dealer, got his start right out of high school in the late 1980s and lately was at the pinnacle of a local cocaine operation that trucked in vast quantities of drugs from Mexico.
Williams’ midstate empire was responsible for peddling marijuana and millions of dollars worth of cocaine across the region. Investigators have said that for about five years his operation flourished below law enforcement’s radar. But in late 2019, Houston County sheriff’s narcotics investigators who were keeping tabs on and monitoring phone calls of a Perry-area drug dealer “climbed the ladder” of the drug ring and eventually identified Williams as the ring’s top dog.
Williams was arrested in March 2020 at his home off Bass Road in north Macon after he was linked to a trucked-in shipment of 87 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $4 million. The shipment was intercepted days earlier by narcotics agents at a Love’s Travel Stop off Interstate 75 in south Bibb County.
Williams was found guilty Nov. 1 after a weeklong trial.
His crimes were part of a pattern of illegal activity that included three counts of violating Georgia’s Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. He had faced a maximum of 60 years behind bars.
At Williams’ sentencing on Monday in Houston Superior Court, Judge G.E. “Bo” Adams spoke of drug-”ruined” lives and the problems that drug-sellers like Williams cause.
“You are feeding the addiction,” Adams said. “You are profiting by their addiction and their struggles.”
Williams did not speak, but prosecutor Greg Winters, in his argument before sentencing, said jurors in the case had heard enough of Williams’ own words in wiretap recordings. Specifically, one conversation where Williams, with satisfaction in his voice, assured an associate, “We’re gonna make some money this year.”
In his youth, Williams was a standout basketball player at Hancock Central High School in Sparta. He played junior college hoops at Cleveland State in Tennessee and at one point signed to play basketball at Mercer University but never did.
Instead he embarked on a life dealing in Middle Georgia’s criminal underworld while, at least for a time, running a car-sales business and amassing a number of rental properties. Prosecutors said he also oversaw the flying in of marijuana stowed in luggage on commercial flights from California to Atlanta.
Previous convictions
Twenty-four years ago in 1997, Williams pleaded guilty to a marijuana-distribution charge that federal prosecutors said was part of a drug ring that had conspired to sell more than 100 kilograms of pot. He was sentenced to 37 months in prison.
In 1990, Williams was described by law enforcement officials as the kingpin of a Hancock County crack-cocaine ring that funneled drugs into Macon and other parts of the midstate. Other drug charges in Baldwin and Peach counties were dropped when the feds got involved and two of their cases took precedence.
On Tuesday, Winters, the prosecutor, recalled the past cases against Williams and argued that if he wasn’t sent away to prison for what likely will be the rest of his life that Williams, when freed, would “go right back” to dealing drugs.
“He needs to serve every day of that 40 years,” Winters said. “His livelihood, his business, was trafficking drugs. ... This is how he lived his life. This is how he provided for his family.”
The prosecutor went on acknowledge a handful of friends and relatives who spoke well of Williams in court on Monday, recognizing him as a kind recreation basketball coach who encouraged and mentored young people as a community volunteer.
But Winters said there was a troubling flip side to Williams’ endeavors.
“He was bringing in 40 kilos a month from the Gulf Cartel and distributing drugs. ... So much so that this is the first case in my time as a prosecutor where drugs were actually being sent to Atlanta,” Winters said. “But that wasn’t enough. ... He was attempting to bring in another 5 to 10 kilos for his own.”
Winters said Williams was looking to expand his operation to Washington D.C., and Baltimore, and also to New York City, in which drugs would be shipped from Mexico, through Macon and on up the East Coast.
“We’re now talking over 100-plus kilos a month,” the prosecutor concluded. “Judge, he has made no decision that would benefit this or any other community.”
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.