ADDU heroin bust may be largest ever for Albany

ALBANY — A drug raid Wednesday night led to what may have been Albany’s largest ever heroin bust, according to the Albany-Dougherty Drug Unit.

At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, the ADDU conducted a drug raid on two rooms at the East Albany Luxury Inn Motel, located at 201 Thornton Drive, officials said.

“On June 15, about 8:30 p.m., our agents served a search warrant at the Luxury Inn Motel,” said ADDU Commander Maj. Prurince Dice. “We served the search warrant on two rooms — one room being room 110, which is where all of the targets/suspects were, and room 147, which was another room that the suspects had purchased to further facilitate their drug operation.”

According to ADDU, agents found 142.6 grams of heroin (street value $17,040), 14.7 grams of cocaine (street value $1,470) and more than $3,900 in cash in the room with the suspects.

“We discovered two suspects, Konterrious James, a.k.a. KT, and black male subject Travis Harris,” said Dice. “Both were in possession of the currency and both were in possession of the heroin. Both were also in possession of marijuana that we found at the scene. We found at least half an ounce of cocaine, as well in the room.

All subjects were arrested and transported to the Dougherty County Jail, where they are currently. There were several charges taken out for this amount of heroin, which is a trafficking offense in the state of Georgia. If we look at it in terms of ounces, there were almost 4 ounces of heroin, each ounce being 28 grams and we had over 142 grams, so, over 4 ounces of heroin in this case, which, in this sense, is one of the largest heroin cases I’ve seen in Albany since I have been in charge. I have never seen this much heroin seized by drug agents in Albany, which leads me to one thing. It is becoming a chronic problem and we have to deal with it.”

Three individuals were arrested, officials announced.

Konterrious Antwon “KT” James, who will turn 35 Monday, was charged with trafficking heroin, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, two counts of aggravated assault and active parole violation.

Travis Orlando Harris, 37, was charged with possession of heroin with intent to distribute and possession of marijuana.

Cara Jelaine Ryals, 27, was charged with probation violation.

“We have received some information that this gentleman (James) may be getting this stuff from Atlanta,” Dice said. “I think they are going to Atlanta, picking this stuff up and bringing it back to our community. And that’s an issue for this community, for law enforcement, and we’ve got to do everything we have to do to get it off the streets.”

Regarding James, Dice said ADDU agents “actually have been investigating him for quite some time; over a period of three or four months. We attempted to arrest him a few weeks ago. He got away from us and we were unable to arrest him. After he got away from us, I believe it was the next day, he was back at it again.”

Dice said James “changed his strategies and started using hotels to sell his product. One concern that I am having regarding this particular motel is that this gentleman was paying people off to store evidence in their rooms and to access their rooms to other rooms that he had purchased under the table.”

The ADDU commander said he believes the business owner “had something to do with it.”

“I am going to keep pushing this case until we get a racketeering case,” Dice said. “It is serious to me and, on the scene last night, I was very disappointed that we have business owners in this community that are contributing to drug dealers, especially drug dealers selling heroin. I am even getting ticked off about it as I speak.”

ADDU officials said they would continue the investigation until everyone who is connected is in custody.

“Mark my word on that, that is what we are going to do,” said Dice. “We are going to bring them all down. there is no reason for a business owner, a hotel owner, to be helping a drug dealer. We haven’t proven it yet, but I believe he (James) was paying them off.

“There are no records in the computer system where he legally purchased these rooms. Everything was under the table. Also, I am glad we got this guy. James was already wanted by APD for an aggravated assault warrant. He beat a guy in the head with a hammer, he almost died, and beat up his girlfriend real bad; broke a few of her bones.”