Drug agents with Hall County's Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad (MANS) had a hectic Thursday afternoon, rounding up six suspects in two separate drug busts in the North Hall area.
In one incident, MANS Lt. Don Scalia said agents with his department, along with other law enforcement officials, were enroute to the residence of suspect Richard Heath Milligan on Mountain Ridge Road just off Price Road. They spotted Milligan in a vehicle in the neighborhood and stopped him.
"He actually pulled over for a short time, but as the officers were walking up to his vehicle...he decided he was going to back up and he almost struck two of my officers who were approaching his vehicle from behind," Scalia said.
In the process of fleeing the scene, Milligan struck the brick neighborhood sign, damaging it. At that point, Scalia said, officers proceeded on to Milligan's residence and found his truck abandoned in the area along with two duffel bags he had apparently tossed into a yard in the neighborhood.
"Within those two duffel bags we found two loaded firearms - 9mm semi-automatic pistols - a little over one ounce of methamphetamine, and then the usual drug paraphernalia," Scalia said.
Scalia said a K9 officer was able to track Milligan and officers arrested him. Then, as officers executed a search warrant at Milligan's home, they found a second suspect - identified as Justin Blake Brister - along with 3.5 grams of methamphetamine. The suspects also had $3,885 in cash in their possession.
Scalia said the investigation into Milligan's activities is ongoing.
Four arrested in meth bust on Forest Blvd.
In the other case, which happened earlier in the day, Scalia said agents arrested four suspects at a residence on Forest Blvd. off Cool Springs Road, also in the North Hall area.
As agents executed a search warrant, they discovered the components of a meth lab, drug paraphernalia and more than an ounce of methamphetamine.
Brandon Keith Bouchard, Charles Patrick Minor, Billy Eugene Millwood and Chasity Marie Dessecker all face charges in the case.
Methamphetamine cases are found in every type of neighborhood
Scalia said the Thursday search warrants were executed in homes located in nice, middle-class neighborhoods, something that surprised some neighbors who watched the activity unfold.
"It's a total fallacy that drugs, drug sales, drug use are always in the bad areas of town - trailer parks, housing projects, that kind of thing," Scalia said. "Every single neighborhood that you can imagine has this stuff in it - from neighborhoods that have million dollar and up homes all the way down to lower-income areas...if you don't think it's in your neighborhood, you're kidding yourself."
In fact, Scalia said law enforcement was planning to execute other search warrants on Thursday, but the two incidents in the North Hall area took several hours to handle. He said the two cases were not related, but he said those involved probably knew each other, since suspects in these types of cases seem to run in the same circle.
"We were in the area investigating both of these places, as well as a couple of others," Scalia said. "Do I think the suspects in these two different cases know each other? Absolutely! There's no way they wouldn't, but as far as what their criminal relationship is, that's one of the things we're looking into."
The Hall County Sheriff’s Office Uniform Patrol Division, Warrants Division, A.C.E. Unit, and K9 Units; the City of Gainesville Police Department K9 Units and the Georgia State Patrol assisted with Thursday's investigations.
