Two sentenced for selling meth-making products
|
According to Assistant U.S. District Attorney Perry Piper, the sentencings of Gary Dodson, 55, former owner of Bridgeside Market on Beersheba Street and his employee, Lester Land, 46, marked the first convictions of merchants for selling meth-making materials in Warren County.
Land, who was convicted following a trial last year, received the most severe sentence as he was ordered to serve 21 years and eight months in federal prison for a variety of crimes including conspiracy to aid and abet the production of meth, conspiracy for the illicit sale of ephedrine, possession of a meth lab, possession of meth and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon. Land had a prior felony conviction in 1998 on drug charges.
Dodson entered a guilty plea to the charge of conspiracy to aid and abet the production of meth and was sentenced to three years and four months in federal prison. Dodson had a prior felony conviction in 1995 for interstate transport of stolen goods.
Both defendants are now serving their sentences in federal prison. Both will be eligible to have up to 54 days a year deducted from their overall sentence for good behavior; however, the federal system does not offer early release through parole.
The two were arrested last year for selling meth ingredients to meth cookers out of Dodson’s store. During Land’s trial, prosecutors brought several meth traffickers to the stand who testified they had purchased the ingredients, mainly ephedrine, a key ingredient in meth manufacture, from the men.
According to District Attorney General Dale Potter, the sale of items such as ephedrine is a major concern to law officers. While most local businesses are cooperating by monitoring the sale of such items, Potter said there are a few who continue to tread in dangerous water.
“This needs to set an example to others who may be making questionable sales of items like ephedrine,” Potter said. “I’m sure there are others being looked at for the same thing.”
The sentences handed to Dodson and Land come over a year after a Coffee County store owner, Harry Javaherpour of Par Four Market, was sentenced to 14 years for selling ephedrine to meth-makers. Lawmen suspect many of the ingredients purchased for Javaherpour ended up in the hands of Warren County meth traffickers.
Federal prosecutors praised the work of members of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department and other local law enforcement agents in helping make the cases against Land and Dodson.