Manager Of $1 Million Meth Trafficking Operation Sentenced

ATLANTA – The man who managed a sophisticated meth trafficking network that sought to distribute more than $1 million worth of drugs in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties has been sent to jail. Hugo Solano-Garcia has been sentenced for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Beginning in July 2017, federal agents and the Atlanta-Carolina High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program began investigating Solano-Garcia and his associates for trafficking methamphetamine that had been smuggled from Mexico into metro Atlanta. Federal and local law enforcement agents uncovered a series of stash houses and meth labs in DeKalb and Gwinnett where the defendants would convert liquid meth into crystals for distribution, hiding the drugs in hollowed-out fire extinguishers and car batteries. The defendants barricaded some of these conversion laboratories and guarded them with guns.

Agents raided one conversion laboratory in Brookhaven, Georgia, on January 30, 2018, where they found 130 pounds of crystal and liquid meth and three firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle. This is believed to be one of the largest methamphetamine seizures in Brookhaven's history.

Solano-Garcia has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, and he will be deported subsequent to completing his term of incarceration. Nine other defendants have also been indicted and eight have already been sentenced to jail terms.