More than a metric ton of methamphetamine — hidden in a shipment of celery — was seized at a metro Atlanta farmers market last week, Drug Enforcement Administration agents announced Tuesday.
The 2,585-pound bust was the largest ever in the metro area and the third-largest in the nation this year, DEA Atlanta Special Agent Robert Murphy told reporters at a news conference Monday.
According to officials, agents got a tip about a Mexican drug cartel smuggling the large shipment across the border via a tractor-trailer that was headed to the State Farmers Market in Clayton County.
Agents arrested the driver, Jesus Martinez Martinez, 40, after they said they discovered the meth in the cargo area of the truck. He was charged with trafficking meth and booked into the DeKalb County jail, records show. He was being held without bond Tuesday.
“This is a significant and unbelievable amount of drugs to be shipped at one time and to a destination this far from the border,” Murphy said in a statement. “It also shows the confidence of the cartel behind this.”
The wholesale value of this seizure is approximately $3.2 million.
“Obviously, we threw away the celery. That didn’t make it to the store,” he added.
The investigation continues. The DEA said a top priority is defeating the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, which are responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl and methamphetamine killing Americans.
Georgia is a “produce terminal for the southeastern United States, and if drugs are moving through there, there is a possibility for food contamination,” Georgia Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said. “We are going to exert efforts every single day to ensure this type of activity does not take place and they are not able to use places like the state farmers market to purport their criminal activity.”
The meth has not been tested to determine if it has been laced with fentanyl, agents said, but added that it is unlikely. Drug shipments from Mexico typically are not tainted by other drugs. It’s lower-level dealers who cut the meth with cheaper fentanyl in order to sell a larger quantity and therefore make sales more profitable, Channel 2 Action News reported.
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