Two Arrested in Multi-Agency Drug Investigation in Stephens County
By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa
Sheriff Randy Shirley holds up the drugs seized in a bust on Hayes Road last week.
In Stephens County, a suspected drug dealer is now behind bars after turning herself in Wednesday.
The arrest of 38-year-old Christel Glenna Ivester comes after a week-long search. Ivester is charged with drug trafficking after a major drug bust at her Toccoa home.
It happened last Thursday at a home on Hayes Road in Toccoa.
Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said his office, along with agents from the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office served a search warrant 1097 Hayes Road.
The warrant was based on information developed during a joint investigation with the Hall County Multi Agency Narcotics Squad and the U. S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HIS).
“For several months now, the drug task force and my drug agent on that task force have been working this case,” said Shirley. “At the same time, U.S. Homeland Security undercover agents were working a large case in the Gwinnett County area, as was the Hall County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad.”
According to the Sheriff, authorities found about 5 pounds of methamphetamine, 1 pound of marijuana, 6 ounces of powder cocaine, and 3 firearms during the search.
The street value of the illegal narcotics is about $268,000.
Arrested at the scene was 37-year-old Marty Allen Smith of Dooley Drive in Toccoa.
Smith is charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
However, Ivester was not home at the time of the drug bust and had been on the run until Wednesday when she voluntarily surrendered to authorities.
Shirley said Ivester is charged with trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking cocaine, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Smith, meantime, was taken to the Stephens County Jail.
Shirley says he is pleased to see this major drug operation put to a stop.
“This was a big case and we certainly could not have worked it without the cooperation of the Appalachian Regional Drug task force and their network of intelligence and relations that they have statewide and nationwide,” said Shirley. “It was a cooperative venture.”
The Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office is a multi-agency unit that consists of the Sheriff’s Offices from White, Lumpkin, Towns, Banks, Habersham, Stephens, and Rabun Counties, along with the Georgia National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, the Department of Public Safety, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.