A Florida man convicted of distributing enough fentanyl to kill every resident of a south Georgia community has been sentenced to federal prison.
Larry B. Taylor, 59, of Jacksonville, Florida, one of 76 defendants indicted in Operation Ghost Busted, was sentenced to 180 months in prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute a Quantity of Fentanyl, said Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood also ordered Taylor to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of his prison term.
There is no parole in the federal system.
“It’s a remarkable illustration of the toll of death and destruction from Larry Taylor’s drug-dealing that overdoses in the Brunswick area plummeted after he and his co-conspirators were taken into custody in January 2023,” said U.S. Attorney Steinberg. “The investigation and prosecution in Operation Ghost Busted not only holds criminal behavior accountable – it also demonstrably saves lives.”
Taylor was the primary source of fentanyl to the conspiracy outlined in the Dec. 2022 indictment in USA v. Alvarez et al. Dubbed Operation Ghost Busted because of the drug traffickers’ involvement in the Ghost Face Gangsters and other criminal street gangs, the investigation identified a drug trafficking conspiracy distributing large amounts of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin, and alprazolam in the greater Glynn County area.
For his part, Taylor is attributed with distributing more than three kilograms of fentanyl – enough to kill the entire population of the city of Brunswick. As described during sentencing, Taylor has been arrested more than 50 times and has at least 10 prior felony convictions – and at least eight times after conviction, Taylor violated conditions of parole or supervised release.
The investigation was spurred in 2020 by a significant increase in drug overdoses and deaths throughout the greater Glynn County Area. Investigators from the FBI Coastal Georgia Violent Gang Task Force, the Glynn County Police Department, the Brunswick Police Department, the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office, and the Camden County Sheriff’s Office collaborated with other agencies to identify a sprawling drug trafficking network in coastal and south Georgia and reaching into Mexican cartels. The traffickers operated inside and outside Georgia prisons, as corrupt prison guards coordinated with members of the violent Ghost Face Gangsters and affiliates of other gangs including the Aryan Brotherhood, Surenos, Bloods, and Gangster Disciples.
Of the 76 original defendants in Operation Ghost Busted, 73 have been sentenced to prison terms of as much as life in prison after pleading guilty. Two are awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty, including David D. Young, a/k/a “Khaos,’ 43, of Hortense, Ga., who was a fugitive until his March capture in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, a month after the case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” One defendant died while awaiting trial.
All defendants in Operation Ghost Busted have a history of illegal drug use, including several who survived repeat overdoses. Fifty of the defendants are high school dropouts, and all defendants collectively have been arrested more than 1,000 times and convicted of more than 250 felonies, with more than 260 violations of probation, parole, or supervised release.
Believed to be the largest drug trafficking prosecution in the history of the Southern District of Georgia, Operation Ghost Busted was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
Agencies involved in the investigation include the FBI Coastal Georgia Violent Gang Task Force; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; the Georgia Department of Corrections; the Georgia Department of Community Supervision; the Glynn County Police Department; the Brunswick Police Department; the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office; and sheriff’s offices from Pierce, Camden, Wayne, Treutlen, McIntosh, Toombs, Telfair, Dodge, and Ware counties. The case is being prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer J. Kirkland and Criminal Division Deputy Chief E. Greg Gilluly Jr.
