A man from southern Mississippi who was arrested during a sting operation for a meth trafficking ring operating out of a barbecue stand is headed to prison.
Andrew Clay, 32, of Moorhead, was convicted of aggravated trafficking by a Lowndes County Circuit Court jury Wednesday and sentenced to 40 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, a Thursday press release from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office said.
Clay was arrested on June 6, 2023, as a part of a sting operation by LCSO’s Special Tactics Investigative Narcotic Group. District Attorney Scott Colom told The Dispatch that Clay was arrested on Highway 82 alongside Patrick Lamont Davis and Jarvis Markell Thurman as they returned from a drug deal. Police confiscated four pounds of methamphetamine during the arrest, the press release said.
Colom said he and other prosecutors argued that Clay was the supplier for the ring, taking drugs up from the Mississippi Delta to sell further north.
“He was supplying tremendous amounts of methamphetamine to local dealers in Columbus and Lowndes County,” Colom said. “I don’t know where he was getting them from, but I’m assuming in those amounts he was getting it internationally. There’s just no way he was getting that amount within the state of Mississippi.”
According to a press release from the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, the trial took two days and was primarily argued by Assistant District Attorney Marc Amos. Colom said the jury deliberated for around 30-45 minutes before convicting Clay. Judge Jay Howard passed down his sentence.
“It was a ridiculous amount of methamphetamine,” said Colom. “Forty years is a pretty stiff sentence. Aggravated trafficking is the highest penalty you can get for drug dealing in Mississippi, the range if you go to trial is 25 to life.”
By the end of the LCSO sting, eight people were arrested in total, including Eric Green, of Steens. Green also recently pleaded guilty to aggravated trafficking of methamphetamine in Lowndes County Circuit Court, the release said.
During the course of the investigation, Green shifted his operation from his home to a BBQ stand, Till It’s Gone BBQ, at 5860 Highway 50 East, Sheriff Eddie Hawkins told The Dispatch shortly following the arrest.
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