JONES COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
A six-month investigation led to warrants served on 12 Jones County businesses last week for the sale of illegal drugs, involving CBD products over the legal limit for THC.
Three of the stores also face charges of commercial gambling for paying out cash winnings on gaming machines.
The Jones County businesses were part of 34 total businesses that were served with warrants Jan. 10–11 in three Middle Georgia counties. The joint operation included the counties of Putnam, Jasper and Jones.
The operations were the idea sheriffs Butch Reece, Howard Sills (Putnam) and Donnie Pope (Jasper). Reece said the three sheriffs are close friends and decided working together would make a bigger impact.
JCSO Investigator Crystal Murphy said the catalysts for the operation were complaints from parents and family members and the number of students caught vaping. She said there have been numerous EMS calls in Jones County involving students and CDB gummies.
The investigator said the stores paying out cash prizes are frequent targets for robberies. The gaming machines are legal if prizes are paid out in store merchandise or lottery tickets.
Murphy said the investigation began with undercover operatives going into the stores and purchasing products suspected of being over the limit for THC. The legal age to buy the products is 21. But, she said in some cases, the underage purchaser was carded, and the sale went forward anyway.
Operatives checked out the businesses suspected of paying out cash prizes by playing the machines.
She noted that all the CBD product labels claimed to be under the 0.3 percent Delta 9 THC limit. Delta 9 is the most abundant form of THC and is what makes the user high. Murphy said the products were sent to a lab for testing, and most were over the limit. She said some were as high as 7-8 percent.
The investigator said the legal limits are enforced in Georgia. She said most of the products over the limit were from other states, with many from California.
The inventory of the purchasing and testing of the products was organized by Murphy and filled two large three-ring binders.
In a Jan. 12 press release by Sills, he talked about the warrants in all three counties. He said a total of 34 business were involved.
“These actions are the culmination of a joint investigation conducted by the three sheriff’s offices that began back in June of 2023.Undercover deputy sheriffs and other sheriff’s personnel have been buying illegal drugs and engaging in illegal gambling activities off and on at various businesses in the three counties since the start of the investigation,” the release stated.
Sills said a significant quantity of hydrocodone, morphine and other narcotics was found in one of the businesses in Monticello.
Murphy said all the suspected over-the-limit products were seized when the warrants were executed as well as all the cash on the premises. She said the gaming machines in the businesses involved were shut down by the Lottery Commission.
The investigation office at JSCO was packed Friday with large brown grocery bags filled with vaping and hemp products and CBD gummies. The investigator pointed out the packaging of the gummies make it look like candy and clearly targets kids.
Murphy said no arrests were made at the businesses last week. She said they are looking at all the information and will sit down with the District Attorney’s office to decide how to move forward.
She said anticipated charges include possession and sales of schedule I drugs, commercial gambling, keeping a gambling place, furnishing cash payments for video machines and sales to minors.
“We’ll be deciding whether to charge the clerks, store owners or all of them,” she said. “This is the kind of stuff that leads to bigger crimes.”
She said at least one of the gaming machine stores involved is a constant problem with violations and robberies due to the large amount of cash kept for the payoffs.
Murphy said 25 JCSO officers participated in the Jan. 11 operation, and 19 of them helped Jasper and Putnam offices the previous day.
Reece said he was very proud of the job of the officers in the investigation and execution of the warrants.
“We used personnel from all over our department. They acted professionally and jumped right in. We have good people who want to do their job and do it right,” the sheriff said. “I’m proud of the way they conducted themselves.”
