A Georgia drug kingpin got slapped with a stiff 40-year sentence after a major fed crackdown on his crew's flow of meth throughout west central Georgia. Cornelius Leonard, 29, better known as "Tae", from Grantville, will spend nearly half a century behind bars, after a federal court delivered the sentence on May 14. Leonard, who pleaded guilty to a trifecta of charges including drug distribution and witness tampering, won't have the chance at parole.
"Cornelius Leonard and those involved in pushing more than 250 kilograms of methamphetamine into Thomaston and Columbus have been held accountable for their part in this armed drug trafficking organization causing harm in these communities," U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary stated, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office press release. The sweeping investigation, which unraveled Leonard’s organization, saw collaboration between federal, state, and local law enforcement to shutter what was called a significant criminal operation.
Leonard's operation, which stirred the pot in Georgia's underbelly, operated with at least one man inside the clinker. Co-defendant Pedro Barragan Valencia, a 47-year-old inmate at Calhoun State Prison and a Sureños gang member, cooked up a scheme from his cell to supply Leonard with massive quantities of meth for the streets of Thomaston, Columbus, and neighboring gopher state locales. The feds pinned down Leonard and his associates after multiple controlled drug buys and wiretaps that laid bare their drug-dealing machinations.
Under Leonard's cap, various lieutenants and soldiers have already faced the music, the staccato march of justice sending a motley crew of dealers and conspirators to serve prison time. From Valencia, dubbed the "Mexican Hitman Pete," who got a 400-month sentence, to Rashard Moreland who'll cool his heels for a milder 40 months after pleading out to using a phone to pedal drugs. This sentencing fiesta serves as a stark warning that the feds mean business, said FBI Atlanta Supervisory Senior Resident Agent of the Macon Office Robert Gibbs, according to U.S. Attorney's Office. Gibbs warned, "If you bring illegal drugs into our communities, we will employ whatever means necessary to find you and bring you to justice no matter where you are."
The takedown was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force initiative that aims to dismantle top-tier criminal rackets threatening America. More information about the task force's goals and operations can be found on the DOJ's official Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force webpage. The broad-reaching investigation and prosecution, spearheaded by the FBI and the Upson County Sheriff’s Office, leveraged assistance from the Georgia Department of Corrections—with Leah McEwen at the legal helm for the government. The verdict casts a long shadow over Georgia's illicit drug trade, perhaps signaling a turn of the tide in regional narcotics operations.
