Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration hit a jackpot in Stone Mountain, Georgia, uncovering a meth stash with a street value upwards of $1.6 million. The bust, originating from a residential home linked to a notorious drug cartel, also netted over $100,000 in cold, hard cash.

The DEA, with an assist from local DeKalb County SWAT and drug unit officers, swarmed the suburban home on Stone Trace late Tuesday. In their haul, they snagged approximately 370 kilos of meth, as per the comments of DEA Special Agent Robert J. Murphy in a news conference — as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta. Two individuals were apprehended: Jonathan Guzman Esquibel, and another who clammed up, offering no name.

These arrests underscore a troubling reality announced by Murphy: Atlanta has morphed into a major drug trafficking nexus, largely due to its strategic location and sprawl of highways. The DEA alleges that the drugs were destined for distribution in the Atlanta metro area. Murphy also indicated a potential link between this operation and the Mexican Jalisco New Generation cartel. "This is the same organization," he was quoted as saying, hinting at the similarities to the recent Norcross bust detailed in an interview with WSB-TV.

The broader investigations have yielded nearly 1,000 kilos of meth from this cartel group in just a matter of weeks. Murphies's remarks to the FOX 5 press painted Atlanta as a cocaine hub not only because of infrastructure but also "the ability to go up the coast, down the coast into the Midwest… and they can blend into communities."

Meth continues to be a moneymaker for cartels like the one presumably operating out of the raided Stone Mountain home because it's cheap to produce and fiercely addictive. Atlanta, as Murphy pointed out, has become a central location for the cartels to convert and ship out these drugs. The Stone Mountain home served mostly as a storage site, with the actual conversion from liquid to crystal meth taking place elsewhere.