Six people, including one from Atlanta, have been indicted in a vast drug conspiracy involving cryptocurrency, the darknet and industrial-grade machinery, federal prosecutors said.
Two of those people also face felony murder charges in Walton County after allegedly brutally beating a suspected co-conspirator, burying his body and causing him to suffocate to death.
RELATED: Father, son among 3 arrested after man's body found in metro Atlanta
According to an indictment obtained by AJC.com, Walker Christian Forrester, Kolbie Hadden Watters, Jonathan Britt Lester, Larry Overton, Armand Sananda Saedi and Morgan McKenzie Slaton are accused of taking part in the drug conspiracy, which dates back to 2016.
The alleged conspirators “imported large amounts of drugs” purchased with cryptocurrency on the darknet, used industrial-grade machinery to manufacture pills, and sold the drugs on the darknet and throughout Georgia, U.S. District Attorney Bobby Christine said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration first became aware of Forrester, 24, of Loganville, in September 2017, after he bought an industrial-grade pill press, Christine said.
Two months later, Forrester, Watters and a juvenile were arrested in Harlem during a traffic stop in which police officers found more than 5,200 counterfeit Xanax pills, marijuana and a sawed-off shotgun in the car.
Investigators said Forrester also bought punch dies to create the counterfeit pills, Alprazolam as the main ingredient and binding agents to manufacture “tens of thousands of pills per month,” Christine said.
“The illicit ingredients were purchased on the Dark Web using cryptocurrency, with the counterfeit Xanax likewise sold on the Dark Web or through conventional illegal drug distribution channels,” Christine said.
The alleged conspirators moved the four pill presses around the state to avoid detection, according to officials. At one point, they began manufacturing and selling synthetic heroin using fentanyl and Carfentanil, he said.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Carfentanil is "10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl."
Christine said Overton, 46, who allegedly housed one of the pill presses at his home in Harlem in exchange for drugs, was briefly in the hospital after overdosing on the synthetic opioids.
According to the indictment:
- Forrester and Watters are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances; using or maintaining a drug premises; possession with intent to distribute controlled substances; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; possession of an unregistered firearm; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- Overton is charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substances; and using or maintaining a drug premises.
- Lester, Saedi and Slaton are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and to distribute controlled substances.
Lester, 22, of Loganville, and Watters, 22, of Augusta, are also charged with aggravated assault and felony murder in Walton County, jail records show. The two men are accused of beating a suspected co-conspirator to death and burying his body.
Chase David Loffler, 25, was found buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of Lester’s home in Loganville in April 2018, Christine said. Watters was arrested and booked into the Walton jail April 6. Lester was arrested days later on April 11.
