Cooter, Osama, and Paranoia arrested

[strickj]

Only in Marion County...

Major Meth Roundup | major, meth, roundup - Local News - WTVC NewsChannel 9: Chattanooga News, Weather, Radar, Sports, Lottery

A long term federal investigation rounds up 14 men on charges of making and selling meth. Most of it happened in Marion County.

Agents picked up people in Sequatchie, Grundy and other mountain counties west of Chattanooga. One officer working with the A-T-F says this three plus year investigation connects back to the ring leader, Harry Pritchett, who is known as "Osama."

Federal and local agents made a large dent in the methamphetamine explosion in Southeast Tennessee. Police found a lab and six guns at the Gruetli-Laager home of Mike Coffelt, also known as "Paranoia." But most of the arrests last week happened in Marion County. Cindy Thompson dates one of the men indicted. "I don't think it's right. And I think they should be took off the street. I had no idea that he was even involved with nothing like that." Thompson dates Dana Morrison, also known as "Cooter."

He was one of 21 people recently indicted in a federal conspiracy case. The U.S. Government alleges this group of people made and distributed 50 or more grams of meth and 500 grams of a mixture containing meth.

Thompson said, "I know he had priors, auto theft, but he had been honest about that, he had done his time for that. But I had no idea about anything like this, none whatsoever."

This three plus year investigation has netted 21 meth arrests in Marion County, 14 in Sequatchie County. Marion County sheriff Bo Burnett sees extended benefits, "Not only making and selling drugs, but they also cause a lot of the assaults, thefts. So when you get this many people off the streets, it helps everything."

Since the investigation started, a total of 52 people have been arrested. Sequatchie Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock explained, "Like I said, it comes down the stream and as we start picking people up, we start getting leads on other folks."

"If he did it, he needs to do his time," Thompson said, adding she will not be attending Morrison's hearing in federal court Thursday morning.

Both sheriff's applaud this round-up, but know it's not the end of the fight against meth. Sheriff Burnett elaborated, "It'll slow it down. We've seen a slowdown three years ago when they put pseudoephedrine behind the counter, it slowed down but it started back up. The thing I like about these programs is these people are off the streets for a long time."

Sheriff Hitchcock saw a very real benefit from the cases going federal versus the state level, "When the federal comes to get you, you need to pack your toothbrush because you're going to be gone for a long time," Hitchcock said.

Several of the people named in this indictment are convicted felons and now face gun charges.Three of them are scheduled to appear in federal court tomorrow.

[Guest BEARMAN]

Well strick, if they busted "Cooter" then their wrecker service is gonna suffer big time, down there around Marion county.

Sure hope they don't catch Daisy Duke!