A man who turned a rented house in Ellenwood into a clandestine methamphetamine conversion lab has been sentenced to 16 years and three months in federal prison, closing out a case that investigators say involved more than 770 kilograms of the drug. Florencio Magana-Sarabia, 44, of Michoacán, Mexico, pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. He will also serve five years of supervised release once his prison term ends.
According to WSB-TV, the case traces back to October 20, 2023, when federal law enforcement officers watched several men loading boxes into a Toyota Tacoma outside the Ellenwood home. Georgia State Patrol troopers pulled the truck over after it left the house, and agents seized 134 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine from driver Luis Santiago Urrutia-Mata and passenger José Luis Avalos-Menera during that stop.
Back at the house, which agents say Magana-Sarabia had rented, investigators discovered a working laboratory stocked with 260 kilograms of finished crystal methamphetamine and 100 gallons of still-liquid methamphetamine. Three guns were found inside the lab, adding to the weapons recovered from the property and the traffic stop. As agents moved in, Erik Santana-Sanchez tried to flee the conversion lab and was apprehended on the spot, per the same account.
Three Co-Conspirators Also Sentenced
Santana-Sanchez, 39, of Guerrero, Mexico, admitted to assisting in manufacturing the drugs and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to 78 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release. Urrutia-Mata, 26, of Sinaloa, Mexico, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and received 78 months in prison plus five years of supervised release.
Avalos-Menera, 40, also of Michoacán, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute and was sentenced to 108 months in prison along with five years of supervised release. All three men were sentenced in federal court for their roles in the trafficking scheme that investigators say revolved around the Ellenwood lab, the station reported.
Officials Tout Joint Law Enforcement Effort
U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said Magana-Sarabia and his accomplices amassed and distributed methamphetamine in a residential neighborhood, and credited the swift action of state and federal partners with dismantling the operation and saving lives. The Drug Enforcement Administration and Georgia State Patrol worked together to take down the lab, according to the report.
Michael J. Connolly, acting special agent in charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division, said the sentencing resulted from coordinated law enforcement efforts to disrupt drug trafficking and protect the public, adding that no single agency can tackle these threats alone. The sentencing brings to a close a federal investigation into what officials described as a clandestine methamphetamine conversion laboratory operating out of a residential neighborhood.
Part of a Larger Pattern in Georgia
The Ellenwood case fits into a broader run of large methamphetamine seizures across the state. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of two Atlanta men on trafficking charges after agents seized more than 400 kilograms of methamphetamine in Fulton County, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In 2024, the DEA reported seizing more than a ton of crystal methamphetamine during an enforcement operation at the Atlanta State Farmer's Market in Forest Park.
Other federal cases in the region point to similar conversion-lab operations. The FBI's Atlanta field office said Ramiro Contreras-Sandoval received a 30-year prison sentence for operating two conversion laboratories containing more than 135 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine concealed in paint buckets, along with firearms charges. And federal prosecutors in Macon charged a dozen defendants in a methamphetamine production and trafficking conspiracy tied to a ten-acre Walton County property, according to the Justice Department's Northern District of Georgia office.
