Georgia bartender sentenced to 87 months in prison for distributing fentanyl, meth

ALBANY, Ga. — A Georgia bartender convicted for trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison, prosecutors said.

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According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia, Edgar Fernando Neri, 22, of Guadalajara, Mexico, also known as “Colocho,” was sentenced to 87 months in federal prison on Wednesday. The sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

Neri pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of methamphetamine in mid-2022, the release stated.

Neri was a bartender in Tifton when he was arrested on Oct. 19, 2021, WSB-TV reported.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents were alerted to the distribution of meth in Tifton by a source who had allegedly been buying from a bartender known as “Colocho,” The Tifton Gazette reported.

The source told agents that Neri spoke about moving pounds of meth, and multiple kilos of cocaine and wanted to buy body armor, rifles, a rocket launcher and rockets with his supplier in Los Angeles.

GBI agents began purchasing drugs from the bartender, prosecutors said.

Neri arranged for shipments of more meth and fentanyl pills from his source in Los Angeles, WALB-TV reported. Packages containing 3 pounds of meth and 1,990 blue fentanyl pills arrived in Tifton in October 2021, prosecutors said.

“A large amount of illegal drugs was taken off the streets of south central Georgia,” GBI Director Michael Register said in a statement. “We will continue to dedicate resources to investigating drug activity to make our communities safer.”