Gang Member and Co-Defendant from North Augusta Plead Guilty in Meth Case

A member of a violent white supremacist street gang who pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine in Georgia was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Augusta.

Thirty-seven-year-old Donnie Lee Curtis Jr. of Tunnel Hill, Georgia, was sentenced to 144 months in prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute, and To Distribute, 50 Grams or More of Methamphetamine.  U.S. District Court Judge Dudley H. Bowen also fined Curtis $1,500 and ordered him to serve five years of supervised release after completing his prison term.

Curtis' co-defendant, Robert Lewis Coney Jr. of North Augusta, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, up to life, after pleading to the same charges.  He is awaiting sentencing.

An investigation last year by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration led to the arrests of Curtis and Coney.  The Columbia County Sheriff's Office assisted in apprehending the pair during a drug deal in the parking lot of a motel in Grovetown May 19, 2021.

Searches of Curtis and Coney's vehicle and hotel rooms in Grovetown and in Trenton, South Carolina, resulted in the seizure of large amounts of high-grade methamphetamine and multiple firearms.

"Residents in Augusta and elsewhere can sleep better tonight knowing that this violent "meth" distributor can no longer peddle insidious drugs on the streets," said Robert J. Murphy, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division.  "The DEA and its law enforcement partners presented a united front to protect our communities by bringing these dangerous drug traffickers to justice."