July 16, 2018
GEORGIA, VIRGINIA ‘ILLEGALS’ caught with $100,000 in crystal meth at Pikeville Motel
A Virginia woman and a Georgia man who may be in the country illegally, were indicted this week by a Pike grand jury after the Pikeville Police Department interrupted a “major trafficking operation” involving crystal methamphetamine on Tuesday.
Officers with the Pikeville Police Department located Jeremy Otto Gonzalez, 25, of Mableton, Georgia, and Amanda Casey, 22, of Hurley, Virginia, allegedly in possession of 26 ounces of crystal methamphetamine inside of a room at the Brookshire Inn Tuesday morning.
During the investigation, officers uncovered a backpack in the room which held a shoe box, inside of which was a plastic bag which, Pike Commonwealth’s Attorney Rick Bartley said, held more than 26 ounces of high quality crystal methamphetamine. According to Bartley, the street value for the crystal meth would be between $75,000 and $100,000.
“The PPD did excellent work in this case. This is probably 500 or more individual doses that were ready to be distributed in our area. The officers interrupted that and kept that off of the street,” Bartley said. “They very likely saved somebody’s life and, without question, helped stop some people from feeding their addiction with this drug.”
Pikeville Police Capt. Ricky Younce and officers Billy Ratliff and Tim Roberts had been dispatched to the Brookshire just after 3 a.m. Tuesday after people at the hotel reported hearing fighting inside one of the rooms.
A clerk at the hotel told officers she had received “several complaints” about people fighting inside of the room and she had attempted to check on the two people inside but no one would open the door, the citation in the case said.
“When (the officers) went in, they found Casey lying in the bed unresponsive,” Pike Commowealth’s Attorney Rick Bartley. “But, they are not sure if she was just acting like she was there asleep, because once one of the officers started shaking her to try to wake her up and determine if she was alive, she immediately woke up and started trying to grab a wallet that was lying nearby.”
Bartley said officers saw evidence of drug use inside of the room and moved to secure the hotel room.
“They began finding more evidence of drug use, such as pipes and a butane lighter which are commonly used to smoke meth,” Bartley said. “Officers also found small plastic bags, which are used to sell meth in small amounts, and a set of digital scales, which is used to weight out amounts for trafficking.”
According to Bartley, the amount of crystal meth that was found, the high quality of the crystal meth and the relative young ages of Gonzalez and Casey raised major red flags.
“These two people are very young — they are in their 20s. How do they have the financial resources to be carrying $100,000 in crystal meth? Obviously, they don’t,” Bartley said. “There is somebody else that is supplying this drug to them. I am really curious as to who is supplying this drug and what expected to get in return.”
Those are questions investigators are attempting to piece together, without assistance from Gonzalez or Casey.
“The case is still being very actively investigated by the PPD to determine those answers. Neither of those two are cooperating with the investigation,” Bartley said.
By Chase Ellis
Appalachian News-Express
