Credit for all images: Nashville.gov
The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Metro Nashville Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced the success of the largest meth investigation and seizure in the city’s history.
In a Wednesday press conference, MNPD Chief John Drake and TBI Assistant Director Darryl Richardson elaborated on the confiscation of large amounts of methamphetamines, fentanyl, and firearms.
Following an investigation that began in November 2022, Davidson County Grand Jury indicted 13 people for their alleged roles in a massive drug conspiracy and drug distribution operation in the area, along with a series of gun crimes. Over the course of that investigation, more than 800 pounds of crystal meth and over 24 pounds of fentanyl were seized.
According to Drake, 34-year-old Francisco Velasquez Serrano of La Puente, California, was their primary suspect. He frequently visited the city to meet distributors, 24-year-old James Maurice Butler and 40-year-old Jeffrey Carl Jones. Police say he traveled to Nashville as recently as September to deliver drugs.
Butler and Jones allegedly worked independently of one another, organizing shipments of crystal meth to locations around Nashville. Each would then collect the drugs and store them for later distribution. Investigators allege that the men would use the residential addresses of unknowing individuals and would pick up the packages immediately after they were delivered.
Officials began their investigation after they were notified by FedEx that a shipping service from Toluca Lake, California, had sent seven suspicious packages to six different Nashville residences and one in Antioch. Law enforcement agent were able to seize those packages, which contained around 266 pounds of crystal meth.
A search of the homes of several of the accused also led police to several pounds of marijuana, 172 grams of ecstasy pills, and six firearms.
“The results of this investigation are very significant, not only due to the amount of meth and fentanyl seized, but also due to the fact that the alleged California supplier is among those who have been indicted and arrested,” said Drake. “I am very proud of the law enforcement team members from our department, TBI and other agencies who came together to make Nashville a safer place by stopping this source of meth to our area.”
MNPD and the TBI were aided by the Murfreesboro and Smyrna police departments, as well as the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.
Other individuals named in this indictment are as follows:
- Kenneth Lawrence, 39, Nashville – engaging in meth and fentanyl conspiracies and multiple counts of possessing meth for resale
- Kendrick Tompson, 42, Nashville – engaging in meth conspiracy and multiple counts of the sale of meth
- Christopher Daniels, 25, Nashville – two counts of possession of meth for resale
- Aleah Steele, 24, Antioch – engaging in meth conspiracy and possession of meth for resale
- Shaquarya Fleming, 25, Nashville – engaging in meth conspiracy
- Juannae Piero, 24, Riverside, California – engaging in meth conspiracy
- Timothy L. Batts, 37, Nashville – engaging in meth conspiracy
- Stephen Hicks, 37, Antioch – possession of meth for resale
- Jonathan Kramer, 66, North Hollywood, California – engaging in meth conspiracy and possession of meth for resale
- Tino Wallace, 51, Los Angeles, California – engaging in meth conspiracy and possession of meth for resale
Kramer and Wallace were employees of a California shipping service. They, along with Piero, Batts, and Hicks are all currently being sought for the indictment and are not in custody at this time.
