Gwinnett Man Helped GA Inmate Traffic Meth From Prison

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — A convicted prison-gang member will serve more than three additional decades behind bars after being convicted in federal court of methamphetamine trafficking, federal prosecutors say.

Ricardo Silva, 45, is a high-ranking member of the Surenos prison gang, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta. Already serving time at Smith State Prison for a cocaine trafficking conviction, Silva was sentenced to 35 years this week by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr. for trafficking meth while incarcerated.

Silva was found guilty by a federal jury on April 18, 2018.

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"Silva's time in state prison did not deter him from continuing his drug trafficking activity," said U.S. Attorney Byung J. "BJay" Pak. "Instead of learning his lesson from his cocaine-trafficking conviction, Silva chose to continue building a drug-trafficking network with methamphetamine, but he will now face the consequences of his crime with a lengthy sentence in federal prison."

Silva has been serving time at Smith State Prison in Glennville, where corrections officials believe he is one of the highest-ranking members of Surenos, since January 2010. In 2016, federal agents began investigating him for drug trafficking.

Agents learned Silva somehow got a contraband cellphone, even though he is segregated from the prison's general population for 23 hours a day. The investigation, which included a federal wiretap of Silva's contraband phone, uncovered drug activities.

While investigating information gleaned from the wiretap, agents seized or found evidence of more than 100 pound of methamphetamine in both liquid and crystal from. Silva was coordinating deliveries of the meth from a source in Mexico.

A bust of one of his cohorts yielded six pounds of crystal meth, plus a firearm.
The following people also have been convicted in the case:

• Victor Alfonso Gattan, 33, of Gwinnett County, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on July 10, 2018 to 12 years in federal prison for conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine.
• Anthony Sandoval, 25, of Monroe, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine on April 30, 2018, and is awaiting sentencing.
• Lydia Beck, 26, of McDonough, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine on December 12, 2017, and is awaiting sentencing.
• Fernando Betancourt, 33, of Douglasville, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine on March 5, 2018, and is awaiting sentencing.
• Leslie Nelson, 38, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on September 22, 2017 to 15 years in state prison for trafficking methamphetamine and possession of a weapon during a crime in the Superior Court of Clayton County.

Patch Editor Doug Gross contributed to this article.
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