Once again, Eatonton Police Department and Putnam County Sheriff’s Office combined forces to get drugs off the streets of Eatonton and Putnam County. This time, it was more than a pound of methamphetamine.
“We keep working together to keep our streets clean,” Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said. “This was a good hit. I was glad to get that much out of the city of Eatonton.”
Chief Cardwell and Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills, PCSO’s Chief Deputy Col. Russell Blenk, PCSO’s Lt. Harry Luke, and EPD officers D. Waldroup and R. Meeks worked together on the case, Cardwell said. Two people were arrested April 5 and taken to jail at Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
Katherine Aileen Barcenas, 33, of North Jefferson Street, and Cory James Wilson, 39, of Trojan Circle, both of Milledgeville, are being held without bond, according to jail reports.
Barcenas was arrested on felony charges of possession of methamphetamine – sale of methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine – trafficking methamphetamine, and possession, manufacturing, distributing, trafficking in methamphetamine.
Wilson is facing felony charges of possession of methamphetamine and party to a crime.
Undercover or controlled purchases of the methamphetamine began on March 27, Luke said. Barcenas sold the drugs out of her black 2008 Honda Accord parked in the alley behind several businesses on the corner of North Jefferson and Harris streets; Wilson was in the car with her. When they drove out of the alley, Sills and Cardwell stopped them and arrested them.
“They had 12 ounces of meth in the car, so combined with our purchases, it equaled a pound and 2 grams,” Luke said.
Noting that methamphetamine now sells on the street today for “anywhere from $40 to $80 a gram,” Luke said “that is super, super cheap. It used to cost $1,400 to $1,600 an ounce, but there’s just so much of it coming across the border nowadays that it’s just unbelievably cheap.”
“Splitting the difference” between $40 and $80, Luke said if Barcenas and Wilson were selling the meth for $50 per gram, the street value of the confiscated drugs would be about $22,700.
“And it’s some of that conversion lab stuff, so it’s real pretty stuff,” he added.
Barcinas has a criminal history of this same activity and was out on bond for selling methamphetamine in Clayton County and also was facing charges of selling it in Baldwin County, Luke said. Wilson has no prior record of illegal drug-related convictions.