Federal authorities indicted two Columbia County residents last week on drug and gun charges.
Tacumsa X. Lovett, aka “GB Poncho,” 24, of Grovetown is charged with distribution of fentanyl and marijuana, possession with intent to distribute oxycodone, marijuana and fentanyl and possession of a gun in furtherance of drug trafficking.
Lovett was arrested in February at a Beretta Drive residence in Grovetown. The North Augusta native was charged in Columbia County with possessing 939 grams of fentanyl pills, 135 oxycodone pills and marijuana and selling the drugs in controlled buys, according to court records.
The case and four others announced Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia are being prosecuted as part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a collaboration between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
“The continuing work toward making our community safer demands the removal of guns from the hands of individuals who illegally possess them,” said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. attorney for the southern district of Georgia.
Zanuck L. Berry, 43, of Martinez, was charged in U.S. District Court with possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Berry, who had a Columbia Road address, was charged in February in Columbia County with trafficking meth, cocaine and marijuana; possession of fentanyl with the intent to distribute and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Recently adjudicated in federal court was Lyondo Larell Ware, aka “China,” 43, of Augusta.
Ware was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to possessing a firearm by a convicted felon.
A member of Augusta’s Loyalty Over Everything (L.O.E.) gang, Ware was on felony probation when probation officers found a loaded gun during a search of his residence.
Under federal law, it is illegal for any of the following to possess or attempt to purchase a firearm:
- Convicted felons
- Illegal aliens
- Unlawful users of controlled substances
- Those in furtherance of drug trafficking or violent crime
