Heroin dealers busted in Memphis

(SHELBY COUNTY D.A. NEWS RELEASE 

 - A six-month-long investigation by the Memphis Police Department Organized Crime Unit has resulted in the criminal indictments of 30 high- to mid-level dealers of heroin and fentanyl in the Memphis area, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

The indictments accuse 22 men and 8 women of four felony counts each, including:

• Conspiracy: unlawful possession of a controlled substance 150g or more to sell in a drug-free school zone;
• Conspiracy: unlawful possession of a controlled substance 150g or more to deliver in a drug free school zone;
• Conspiracy: unlawful possession of a controlled substance 2,000g or more to sell in a drug free school zone; and
• Conspiracy: unlawful possession of a controlled substance 2,000g or more to deliver in a drug free school zone.

All are A-level felonies, each of which carries 15 to 25 years in prison without parole. 

Investigators said the defendants were circulating as much as a half kilogram of heroin and fentanyl per week in Memphis and North Mississippi. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds.

The case is being handled by the DA's Crime Strategies Prosecution Unit which incorporates and expands the work of the Multi-Agency Gang Unit, the Organized Crime Unit, Project Safe Neighborhood/Gundone, GunStat, the Safe Streets Task Force and the Violent Crime Unit.