Final defendant sentenced in coastal Georgia investigation that shut down gang-related methamphetamine traffickers

'Operation Who's Laughing Now' sent 19 defendants to federal prison

SAVANNAH, GA:  An admitted gang member who was a major supplier for a methamphetamine-trafficking operation in the coastal Georgia area has been sentenced to federal prison.

Daniel Jeffers, a/k/a “Dirty,” 31, of Savannah, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker to 110 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute More Than 50 Grams of Methamphetamine, said Bobby L. Christine, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. After completion of his sentence, Jeffers must serve three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

“With the final sentence in an operation that saw every single defendant plead guilty, our courageous law enforcement partners conducted a solid investigation that shut down an organization of violent, gang-related and cartel-supplied meth traffickers,” said U.S. Attorney Christine. “We’re proud to punctuate these prosecutions with prison sentences that remove every one of these poison-pushers from our community.”

The investigation, dubbed Operation Who’s Laughing Now, is an offshoot of Operation Vanilla Gorilla, an Organized Crime Drug Trafficking Task Forces investigation that targeted major trafficking of methamphetamine and other drugs into the coastal Georgia area by criminals associated with the Ghost Face Gangsters, a violent, prison-based white supremacist gang.

As described in court documents and testimony, Jeffers, an admitted member of the Ghost Face Gangsters, was a major supplier of methamphetamine to the other 17 co-defendants in Operation Who’s Laughing Now, frequently delivering kilogram amounts of meth supplied by Mexican cartels by way of Atlanta.

A 20-count indictment in May 2019 charged the defendants with a wide-ranging conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine and marijuana and with gun possession violations. The defendants were arrested during the operation conducted by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with other local law enforcement agencies in a 20-county area of eastern Georgia. In addition to quantities of methamphetamine and marijuana, investigators also seized 14 firearms – including two unregistered sawed-off shotguns – and a large amount of ammunition and magazines.

All 18 defendants pled guilty to subsequent federal charges and have been sentenced to federal prison terms ranging up to 135 months.

“South Georgia residents can sleep better tonight knowing that the final defendant of this white supremacist street gang has been sentenced,” said Robert J. Murphy, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta Field Division. “This case demonstrates how DEA and its law enforcement partners work together to destroy drug distribution networks.”

“This case is the product of a concerted collaborative effort on the part of ATF and its local and federal partners to target, investigate, and eliminate the perpetrators of violent crime,” said Beau Kolodka, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field Division of the ATF. “This sentence, along with the previous sentences, will ensure the incarceration of dangerous criminals and contribute to the restoration of order and peace in the Southern District of Georgia.”

Operation Who’s Laughing Now was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), the premier U.S. Department of Justice program to dismantle multi-jurisdictional drug trafficking organizations, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney and OCDETF Coordinator Marcela Mateo, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Pennington.