The U.S. Department of Justice recently announced the sentencing of a Waycross man who pled guilty to participating in a drug trafficking operation while incarcerated.
According to officials with the department, the defendant 39-year-old Jonathan Alvin Pope of Waycross, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute methamphetamine, Fentanyl, and Heroin. Pope was then sentenced to 20 years, 240 months, in a federal prison.
Following his release, Pope will serve three years of supervised release, according to officials.
U.S. Attorney Steinberg stated,
The sentencing of Jonathan Pope represents a key victory in the investigation and prosecution of a significant drug trafficking network distributing illegal narcotics in multiple south Georgia counties. We applaud the outstanding work of the local, state and federal agencies who collaborated to dismantle this network and make our communities safer.
Officials stated Pope is one of 14 defendants charged in Operation Pop’s G.O.A.L., an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Force Investigation.
Pope and the other defendants charged reportedly operated in multiple South Georgia counties, including Glynn, Brantley, Bacon, Pierce, Coffee, Camden, and Ware counties, and beyond. Pope used contraband cell phones and electronic devices to participate in the conspiracy while imprisoned on unrelated state charges.
Other defendants that have pled guilty to charges include
- Lena Leigh Davis, 46, of Homeland, Ga., who conducted drug transactions at Pope’s direction. She pled guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Methamphetamine, Heroin, and Fentanyl, and is serving 135 months in federal prison.
- Richard Reginald Perkins Jr., a/k/a “Reggie,” 47, of Nahunta, Ga., sentenced to 168 months in prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Methamphetamine.
- Kristina Ashley Montgomery, a/k/a Kristina Ashley Crews, 38, of Hortense, Ga., who conducted drug transactions as part of the operation. She is serving 126 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Methamphetamine, Heroin, and Fentanyl. And,
- Clark Bennett, 51, of Blackshear, Ga., is serving 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to Possession of a Firearm in Furtherance of a Drug Trafficking Crime.
The U.S. Department of Justice thanked multiple departments that assisted in the investigation, including the Savannah Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Georgia Department of Corrections Investigative Unit; the Brantley County Sheriff’s Office; the Ware County Sheriff’s Office; the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office; the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office; the Charlton County Sheriff’s Office; and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Georgia State Patrol, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Frank M. Pennington II and OCDETF Coordinator Marcela C. Mateo.
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