Regional Roundup: Half-Million Dollar Meth Bust, Phony Firefighters and Bloody Robbery

– Marietta Patch

A Marietta man is in a North Carolina jail in connection with the seizure of nearly half a million dollars' worth of crystal meth.

Miguel Angel Hernandez, 31, of the 1000 block of Amelia Drive was one of three men arrested in Brunswick County, NC, last month in the biggest crystal meth bust ever in that county, the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office announced Monday.

Hernandez is charged with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine and is being held in the county jail on a $500,000 bond, the Wilmington Star News reported.

Working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Brunswick Sheriff’s Office seized more than 4½ pounds of crystal meth in searches conducted Jan. 16 to 18, the Star News said. Authorities also seized a couple of guns, a 1999 Chevrolet Blazer and a 2004 Honda Pilot.

The raids and arrests followed a two-month investigation into a drug ring that reportedly was an offshoot of a Georgia organization dealing in cocaine and meth.

– East Cobb Patch

Two men pretending to be  employees reportedly solicited money Friday in East Marietta for a nonexistent charity, Marietta Public Safety said in a news release.

The  and Fire departments are searching for the culprits, described as heavy-set white men who appeared to be 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall and between 55 and 60 years old.

The incident came a little more than a week after the city warned that a fake Fire Department employee was charging businesses for fire inspections.

– Cartersville Patch

Three people were taken to the hospital as a result of a Sunday robbery law enforcement officer said left a bloody scene.

Witnesses told detectives 48-year-old Herbert Eberhardt Drews whose address is listed as a room of , entered a Cartersville home near a Highway 41 flea market and  business shortly before 10 p.m., stabbed a 70-year-old man and took an undetermined amount of cash.

On his way out of the house, Drews is accused of attacking and stabbing a 41-year-old Cartersville man who had been sleeping on the porch. The two fought until officers responded, according to that victim, who had Drews subdued when deputies arrived.

The younger victim is believed to have sustained a stab wound to the upper chest along with several cuts, while the older man was taken to Floyd Medical Center in critical condition due to what appeared to be lacerations to his back, shoulders and face.

Drews and the younger man were treated at and released from .

Drews was taken to the  and charged with armed robbery, burglary and two counts of aggravated battery.