In the Fall of 2023, the Union County Sheriff’s Office kickstarted a major regional, state and federal law enforcement effort that culminated last week in the shutting down of a drug trafficking network that brought large amounts of meth and other dangerous drugs into the area.
This criminal enterprise is being referred to as the “Mashburn Drug Trafficking Organization,” or Mashburn DTO, so named for Kevin Lee Daniel Mashburn, 41, of Blue Ridge.
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Mashburn is a Georgia Department of Corrections inmate who was allegedly running a meth lab and distribution pipeline – both subjects of this investigation – from behind bars.
He is currently serving a 30-year sentence at Telfair State Prison on a 2016 meth trafficking charge from Fannin County, with a maximum possible release date of October 2031. Additionally, he has multiple past convictions out of Union County.
After a nearly two-year investigation, everything came to a head earlier this month when the GBI Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, and the FBI Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force served a search warrant at a residence in Norcross.
Between Sept. 3 and Sept. 4, authorities were able to take down a drug lab and arrest Arturo Perez-Huizache, 40, and Carla Michelle Abarca-Jiminez, 22, both of Guerrero, Mexico, for meth trafficking.
“The operation led to the seizure of approximately 4 kilograms of suspected methamphetamine, suspected cocaine, suspected ecstasy pills, and a firearm,” the GBI said. “Agents and deputies also located a methamphetamine lab where methamphetamine oils were being converted into methamphetamine crystals and packaged for sale.”
According to the GBI, the Mashburn DTO is responsible for “flooding large amounts of methamphetamine up the I-515/575 corridor throughout Cherokee, Pickens, Gilmer, Fannin, and Union Counties.”
“Over the past 12 months, agents and investigators have arrested more than a dozen suspects trafficking methamphetamine on behalf of the Mashburn DTO,” the GBI continued. “These arrests netted more than 35 kilograms of methamphetamine.”
To put that into perspective, a heavy meth user might consume a gram of the drug a day, according to the Union County Sheriff’s Office. Seizures totaling 35 kg work out to about 35,000 doses for serious addicts – and that’s just what was seized before it could hit the streets.
“Shutting down Kevin Mashburn’s operation is going to make a huge dent (in the drug trade) in North Georgia and Western North Carolina,” UCSO Narcotics Capt. Tyler Miller.
This was a massive law enforcement effort requiring coordination between multiple agencies across the government spectrum. And it all started in the Fall of 2023 with a joint investigation by the sheriffs’ offices of Union County and Fannin County.
At that time, the county agencies received a confidential tip regarding certain drug activity, which got the ball rolling on a local, state and federal investigation that resulted in three arrests on March 15, 2024, during a multiagency traffic stop in Gilmer County.
The traffic stop yielded 3 kg of meth, and further investigation led authorities to obtain a search warrant for a Pickens County residence where an additional 15 kg of meth were confiscated alongside roughly $20,000 in cash, two firearms, two vehicles, and an enclosed trailer.
One of the individuals arrested in the stop was a Union County resident who is related to the incarcerated Mashburn, which effectively expanded the investigation to ultimately shut down the Drug Trafficking Organization this month.
“Since (the 2024 arrests), the Union County Sheriff’s Office and the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office have continued pursuing leads and dedicating extensive resources to the investigation,” UCSO said last week. “After more than a year of relentless work and countless man-hours, those efforts have culminated in the results outlined below:
“Detectives from Union County and Fannin County partnered with federal, state, and local agencies in a major operation that shut down a meth lab in Gwinnett County.
“This investigation, initiated and driven forward by Union and Fannin County detectives, targeted a trafficking network responsible for moving large amounts of methamphetamine through North Georgia, including right here in Union County.”
UCSO noted that the investigation remains active, with additional arrests expected.
“We will not stop fighting the flow of dangerous drugs into Union County,” Union County Sheriff Shawn Dyer said. “I want to thank the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office for their dedication and partnership in this investigation. Together, we will continue to protect our communities and hold traffickers accountable.”
Holding traffickers accountable is of the utmost importance because, in the drug trafficking world, small-time dealers who get arrested are easily replaced – seemingly overnight – so the drugs trade continues unabated.
That’s why UCSO has widened its focus in recent years to larger dealers regardless of where they are operating.
“We’re going after not only the drugs that are here, but we’re going after the source that’s sending them here,” Dyer said. “We’re trying to make it harder for drugs to get here, and if we go after the source, it helps slow it down.”
Added Dyer, “The small users are a victim of substance abuse, and we arrest them when we need to, but I’d rather go after the person who is supplying them and ruining their lives than the people that are getting their lives ruined.”
The following agencies contributed to the investigation: FBI Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force, GBI ARDEO, the Fannin County Sheriff’s Office, the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office, the Georgia Department of Corrections, the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad, and the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.
