Federal investigators identify man they say is behind largest fentanyl bust in Georgia history
An Alpharetta man made his first appearance in federal court on Thursday after being arrested in what is being hailed as the largest fentanyl bust in state history.
Antwuan Brown, 39, has been charged with possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl.
He was arrested on March 21, 2025, as part of a drug trafficking investigation that led authorities to a Sandy Springs apartment.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne broke this story last week during Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m. after police found enough suspected fentanyl to kill 2.5 million people inside Brown's car.
'It was shocking when we found that amount of fentanyl in our city. You can compare it to killing our entire population of the city of Sandy Springs,' Maj. Forrest Bohannon from the Sandy Springs Police Department said. 'We found two weapons in this apartment complex where we found these fentanyl pills. There are children and adults and several innocent people that live in that area. In two suitcases, we found approximately 240,000 pills, which we believe to contain fentanyl.'
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The haul also included smaller amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine, and PCP, but most of what investigators found is suspected to be fentanyl, which kills about 70,000 Americans a year.
The DEA told Winne at the time that the counterfeit pills were made to look like oxycodone, a painkiller that is one of the most abused drugs here and elsewhere.
DEA said the drugs were likely tied to cartels.
'Someone with this quantity of fentanyl has direct connections to one of three cartels: Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco New Generation, or Cjng, or Nuevo La Familia Cartel. And we're confident that we'll be able to track this down to one of those cartels,' DEA Special Agent in Charge Jae Chung said.
Chung believes most of the powdered suspected fentanyl and the pills would've been bound for metro Atlanta streets.
'The suspect had a lengthy criminal history to include violent offenses with a firearm, drug trafficking and also, he was wanted in two different states,' Chung said.
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Politico
2 hours ago
- Politico
Escalating ICE raids pull California Democrats back into immigration fight
SAN FRANCISCO — The Trump administration's increasingly aggressive moves on immigration are pulling Democrats back into a border security debate they had tried to ignore. For months, Democrats scarred by the politics of the issue sought to sidestep President Donald Trump's immigration wars — focusing instead on the economy, tariffs or, in the case of deportations, due process concerns. But in the span of a week, that calculation was jolted in California, after a series of high-profile raids and arrests, including of a labor union leader and dozens of other people in Los Angeles, and with President Donald Trump on Saturday announcing the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to the area. In this citadel of Democratic politics, party officials from the governor's mansion to city halls are suddenly tearing into Trump on immigration again, inflaming a debate that worked to Trump's benefit in 2024 — but where Democrats believe they now have a political opening. 'We were wrong on the border,' said Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat from San Diego who chided Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a raid at a popular restaurant in the city. 'But it is not hard to explain to average Americans why what's happening here is unproductive. It's so un-American, and it's so cruel.' Peters and other San Diego leaders — including Democratic Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs and Mike Levin — were quick to condemn the recent raid on an Italian restaurant in the trendy South Park neighborhood, where around 20 masked agents stormed the restaurant and handcuffed workers as a rattled crowd looked on. Four undocumented immigrants were arrested. The lawmakers called the agents' tactics 'needlessly reckless' and said the heavy-handed approach 'terrorized' residents, noting agents used flash-bang grenades to disperse those who gathered outside to protest. But if the enforcement action was aggressive, the response from Democrats represented an escalation in their engagement on immigration, too. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, a Democrat, had previously said little about Trump or his immigration policies in the early months of his second term — similar to other blue-city mayors in California who've sought to avoid drawing the president's ire. But in recent days, Gloria sharply criticized federal officials over the raids. And then came the immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, where union officials said the Service Employees International Union's state president, David Huerta, was injured and arrested. Rep. Derek Tran, a Democrat from Orange County, who last fall flipped a hotly contested GOP seat, said on X that he was 'appalled by this clear violation of first amendment rights,' while Rep. Jimmy Gomez called it part of a 'nationwide pattern of suppression.' Protests erupted in the city, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried immigration enforcement tactics she said 'sow terror in our communities.' 'These are fear-driven, military-style operations that have no place in a democratic society,' said Mark Gonzalez, a Democratic state Assemblymember whose downtown LA district was the epicenter of Friday's raids. The next day, when Trump announced the Guard's deployment, Democrats rushed to take a stand in a fight shifting from deportations to the deployment of the Guard. Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted the measure as 'purposefully inflammatory.' And when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the U.S. military, too, Newsom posted on social media, 'This is deranged behavior.' In a note to his super PAC list, he said, 'These are not people who have some deep conviction about protecting law enforcement. This is a President who failed to call up the National Guard when it was actually needed — on January 6th — and then pardoned the participants as one of his first acts as president. They want a spectacle. They want the violence.' For the party at large, it's a notable swing from the immediate aftermath of Trump's victory in November, when many Democratic leaders in California and elsewhere sought to moderate on the issue — or at least strike a more muted tone than they did during Trump's first term. Polling suggests that voter frustration over Democrats' handling of border security and crime played a strong role in Trump's sweeping return to power, and many elected officials adjusted in response. Newsom was among them. He has avoided using the word 'sanctuary' to defend the state's immigration laws that limit police cooperation with ICE. He also vowed to veto a Democratic-led bill that would have applied such restrictions to state prisons and is now proposing steep cuts to a health care program for undocumented immigrants. Earlier this year, he suggested the legal fight over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and imprisoned in El Salvador — he is now back in U.S. custody and facing federal human trafficking charges — was a 'distraction' intended to take Democrats' focus away from other parts of Trump's agenda (Newsom's office later said his remarks were misconstrued). But in recent days, the governor has criticized federal deportation efforts, including reports that federal authorities threatened the family of a Bakersfield girl with a rare, life-threatening medical condition with deportation, despite the family earlier being granted humanitarian protection. 'The @GOP are sending a 4 year old off to her death without a care in the world. It's sick,' Newsom posted on X. The Trump administration has accused Democrats and the media of distorting the facts of the case, noting the girl wasn't actively being deported. Department of Homeland Security Officials said the family has since been approved to stay in the U.S. while she receives medical care. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email that the left's 'unhinged smears' of immigration-enforcement tactics have led to a surge of assaults on ICE agents. 'President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people to deport illegal aliens,' she said. 'It's disturbing that Democrats would side with illegal aliens over Americans and stoke hatred against American law enforcement.' In a social media post, Trump said, 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!' ICE officials have also defended the agency's actions in the San Diego raids, saying agents wear masks due to escalating death threats and online harassment. The agency said it deployed flash-bang grenades when the crowd outside the restaurant 'became unruly' and posed a potential danger. Regarding the arrest of SEIU's leader, federal authorities said Huerta had blocked an ICE vehicle while agents were serving a warrant. Still, the headline-grabbing incidents and images of residents clashing with ICE agents have provided an opening for Democrats to put the Trump administration on the defensive — over raids, accounts of children being separated from their parents during ICE detentions and migrants being arrested in federal courthouses while attending legal proceedings. Recent polling suggests that after making gains with Latino voters in 2024, Trump's support among Latinos is falling off. 'It's one thing when you're talking about illegal aliens in the abstract,' said Mike Madrid, a veteran political consultant and anti-Trump Republican. 'It moved from the abstract to the real. It's cruelty for cruelty's sake, and that's where you're going to lose support.' Chris Newman, legal director with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said while Democrats were hurt in the 2024 election by the Biden administration's handling of immigration, the politics are shifting as Trump tries to carry out his promise of mass deportations. 'When you see these types of Gestapo-style tactics playing out in real life, the whole country is recoiling to that,' said Newman, who represents the family of Abrego Garcia. He has criticized Democrats, including Newsom, over their response to the Abrego Garcia case, which captured national headlines due to Trump's defiance of multiple federal court orders. In that case, Democrats focused their messaging not on the humanitarian toll of deportations, but due process and the rule of law. Newman said the latest raids show Democrats hesitant to attack Republicans over their immigration policies have misread the moment: 'The wrong lesson (from the 2024 election) is that immigration is inherently a losing issue for Democrats at the top level. The right lesson is that what … the American public wants is a clear, legible immigration policy.' Among the most outspoken California Democrats in recent days has been San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who was pilloried by conservative media outlets over his Instagram post that included a photo labeling ICE agents as 'terrorists' in the restaurant raid. The post drew national attention, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accusing politicians on the left of 'openly encouraging violence against law enforcement to aid and abet the invasion of America.' Elo-Rivera, who's also a member of the progressive Working Families Party, said while the restaurant incident made headlines, it was indicative of more aggressive ICE actions that have rattled his district near the U.S.-Mexico border — tactics he argues are designed to stoke fear. He said while Democrats did a lot of 'hemming and hawing' post-election over the party's stance on immigration, they now have a chance to make a sharp contrast with the GOP by consistently advocating for the dignity and rights of migrants. 'Immigration is not a distraction for Democrats. We just need to have the conversation on our terms,' Elo-Rivera said. 'Unfortunately, there's folks that think they need to see a poll first before they take a position.'
Atlantic
3 hours ago
- Atlantic
The Case for Cooler Heads in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, federal agents carrying out deportations on behalf of the Trump administration are clashing with protesters, some lawful, others unlawfully disruptive and even violent. The Trump administration has ordered in the National Guard and threatened to send in the Marines. Governor Gavin Newsom calls this willful escalation. Trump-administration officials say they must protect federal agents engaged in lawful immigration actions––enforcement that some protesters regard as cruel and immoral, regardless of legality. Anytime that American citizens clash in the streets with armed agents of the state, something has gone wrong. Today's civil unrest risks expanding into the sort of violence that kills lots of people and strains civic bonds for decades. And every time looting and rioting occur in Los Angeles, its poorest neighborhoods suffer the aftereffects for years. Stepping back from the brink is in America's interest, regardless of where one attributes blame. As a Californian, I am especially dismayed to see this happen in L.A., a city I adore, where I long lived and where I have many friends and loved ones. For all Angelenos, so recently traumatized by this year's devastating wildfires, and for the many Americans who feel dismay when watching fellow citizens clash, I pray the turmoil ends without loss of life. My fear that it may instead intensify is informed by several background conditions. Among them are President Donald Trump's incentives. On X, many of his supporters are gleeful about the prospect of a clash that ends in bloodied leftists wearing handcuffs and facing felonies. Even setting aside the most negatively polarized segment of the Republican base, Trump has a strong incentive to redirect public attention away from his feud with Elon Musk, his underwater approval rating on the economy, and the fight over a spending bill that divides his coalition, and toward immigration enforcement, an issue on which his approval rating is still positive. What's more, this clash concerns deportation actions that are apparently lawful, as opposed to Trump's unconstitutional deportations of foreigners to a Salvadoran prison. Newsom has urged nonviolence, but California officials also have incentives to focus on opposing Trump rather than restoring calm to protect innocents. Golden State polls show not only that Trump is more unpopular in the state than he is in the nation, but that immigration is a bad issue for him locally. Regarding undocumented immigrants, the Public Policy Institute of California finds that 'overwhelming majorities of adults (73%) and likely voters (71%) say that there should be a way for them to stay in the country legally, if certain requirements are met'; that 'eight in ten adults (79%) and likely voters (80%) favor the protections given by DACA—Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals—to undocumented immigrants brought into the US as children'; and that 'about six in ten adults (63%) and likely voters (62%) favor the California state and local governments making their own policies and taking actions, separate from the federal government, to protect the legal rights of undocumented immigrants in California.' Sentiments in Los Angeles are surely even more antagonistic to Trump's position, and the stakes for Angelenos with family members and friends who live there without legal status are high––in protesting, within or outside of the law, many seek to preserve their communities or perhaps their very families. And Trump, by his own unlawful actions, has made many fear that their intimates may not be simply deported back to their home country but may instead be disappeared into the prison system of an authoritarian regime. Federal and local cops have cause to feel threatened, too. More than 900 suffered injuries during the 2020 unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd. Multiple federal, state, and local agencies trying to keep order, while federal, state, and local officials fight rather than coordinate, only raises the probability of bad outcomes. And today's social-media environment facilitates the rapid communication of where deportation raids are occurring, enabling not just peaceful protesters but also, potentially, nihilistic inciters of chaos to rush to the scene. Immigration-enforcement raids will continue so long as Trump is president and the law of the land is unchanged. Opponents of such actions, even those that are entirely lawful, have every right under the Constitution to peaceably assemble to protest them. Farsighted protest leaders should do everything in their power to keep those demonstrations law-abiding. Under the Trump administration, the rule of law is among the most precious safeguards Americans possess. Appealing to it, Trump critics have repeatedly prevailed in courtrooms, where Trump is least likely to succeed with his most dangerous gambits. In contrast, street violence gives Trump the ability to fight his enemies with the law on his side and with trained, armed personnel to enforce it. In such a fight, Trump may well prevail in the court of public opinion. But if he is seen as needlessly escalating the dispute, and bloodshed follows, more Americans may come to reflect that the same man was president during the civil unrest of summer 2020; the civil unrest of January 6, 2021; and the civil unrest of today. Whether one attributes blame to Trump himself or so-called Trump derangement syndrome, the sad and dangerous spectacle of Americans fighting one another happens alarmingly often when Trump is in the White House. A president attuned to America's long-term interests and the many global challenges our nation confronts would try to lower the temperature, rather than inflame a clash that could have deadly results.
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Mexican flag-waving masked protester becomes the symbol of LA anti-ICE riots: ‘Perfect propaganda for Trump'
Dramatic footage shows a masked protester on a dirt bike waving a Mexican flag as he performs donuts around a blazing car in Los Angeles during the weekend's riots. The drone footage of the masked protester went viral after it was shared on X. Photos and video from the riots show multiple protesters in Los Angeles waving Mexican flags as they confronted federal agents. Observers are saying that foreign flags at the protests give President Trump and Republicans easy talking points as they take a hard line against the anti-ICE protesters. 4 Demonstrator waving Mexican flag in LA protests. REUTERS 'Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America's political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,' Vice President JD Vance posted on X late on Saturday. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) was among those who responded with fury to the viral clip. 'Defund sanctuary jurisdictions. Fund ICE,' she wrote on her personal X account. 4 The masked man circled a blazing car. AFP via Getty Images 'Simple message to illegal aliens: leave now. You broke our laws to get here and you will be deported,' Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) wrote on X. 'There's no confusion anymore. Democrats are putting illegals first and Americans last,' Christian Hernandez from the National Republican Congressional Committee wrote on X. Many Democrats were also furious at the protester — saying it gives Trump more ammunition for a crackdown. 4 Los Angeles has seen unrest on Saturday in response to ICE raids. REUTERS 'I swear this guy has to be a Republican plant,' Democrat supporter Armand Domalewski claimed on X. 'This is like the perfect propaganda footage for Trump and Steven Miller. Why do people do this?' Australian political observer Drew Pavlou, wrote in response. 4 The stunt was branded 'perfect propaganda' for President Trump by frustrated Dems. REUTERS National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early on Sunday morning on the orders of President Trump. The president announced that 2,000 soldiers would be deployed to the city following protests over raids on undocumented migrants. At least one person has been arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail and wounding three officers, and several others were detained following the unrest on Saturday, reportedly triggered by ICE raids on Friday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom branded Trump's actions 'purposefully inflammatory' and claimed it 'will only escalate tensions.'
