It’s all about the money. Two pounds of “ice” methamphetamine made its way from Mexico to Gwinnett County and on to Banks Crossing shopping center in Fayetteville June 14, where two metro Atlanta men were arrested for trying to make the sale to undercover agents.

Santos Garcia Lopez, 30, of Jonesboro, was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, according to Fayette Sheriff’s Drug Task Force (DTF) Capt. Mike Pruitt.

Lopez was found with two handguns, one of which was stolen in Atlanta, said Pruitt.

Also arrested and charged with criminal attempt to traffic in methamphetamine was 25 year-old Atlanta resident Ruben Forsythe Alveo, Pruitt said.

The buy-bust came down when DTF agents met with Lopez and Alveo at 8 p.m. in a vehicle near the JCPenney store at Banks Crossing on Ga. Highway 85. The transaction price the two men had agreed to was $26,000, Pruitt said.

The vehicle was swarmed by other DTF agents, Fayette S.W.A.T. and road deputies and Fayetteville Police. The incident was over in less than a minute, with Alveo and Lopez in custody and two pounds of “ice” in agents’ possession.

From Fayetteville, agents went to a Clayton County address and secured more than a pound of “ice” and $5,000 in cash, Pruitt said. The location of the meth in the Riverdale area had already been determined after surveillance tracked the vehicle as it left the residence and headed into Fayette County, said Pruitt.

But it was the routing of the “ice” from its source and along the drug pipeline that carried as much significance as anything. It is common knowledge to many in law enforcement that metro Atlanta has become a Mecca for methamphetamine.

“This is a prime example of how the drug business doesn’t care about county lines and state lines. We know the main source of this meth, once it arrived in the Atlanta area from Mexico, was in Gwinnett. Then it came to Clayton and then to Fayette. The guy from Clayton was a runner and a distributor for the guy in Gwinnett,” said Pruitt. “And these two pounds were being sold in Fayette presumably to someone who would sell it in Fayette. And if we’d been drug dealers there’s no telling where it would have gone from here. There are no boundaries in the drug world. It’s all about supply and demand and money.”

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