ATLANTA — Raids at a man’s Atlanta and Douglasville residences found a “massive” fentanyl pill pressing operation, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Federal agents told Action News Jax’s Atlanta station, WSB-TV, that it is the largest fentanyl pill operation ever found in Georgia.
Law enforcement agents said the operation uncovered a total of 93 kilograms of fentanyl, along with a stockpile of other drugs and guns, including a machine gun.
“This armed felon allegedly ran a massive fentanyl pill pressing operation in our community, producing enough deadly fentanyl to potentially kill millions of people,” said U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg.
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Bartholomew Keeton Harralson, 47, of Atlanta, was charged by a federal grand jury with possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and marijuana, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
“The scale of this fentanyl operation - run by a convicted felon - posed a grave threat to our community,” said Paul Brown, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The presence of high-powered firearms alongside industrial pill-pressing equipment underscores the deadly convergence of drug trafficking and violence.”
Officials executed search warrants Thursday at both locations, and Haralson was arrested at his Atlanta residence. In addition, law enforcement said they found two large pill press machines capable of pressing up to 25,000 pills per hour, three hydraulic presses used to form kilogram-sized bricks of narcotics, as well as a book titled “How to Avoid Federal Drug Conspiracy & Firearms Charges.”
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