Editor’s note: This story was updated in August 2024 to include information on several additional drug trafficking networks prosecuted in 2023-2024.
When federal prosecutors announced their massive Operation Ghost Busted case, the charges revealed a startling reality: the massive drug trafficking operation had a home base inside Georgia’s state prison system.
The operation ran illegal drugs across 10 counties in South Georgia and inside state prisons in a case that is believed to be the largest ever in Georgia’s Southern District. One of the masterminds was James D. NeSmith, who helped orchestrate the operation despite being behind bars while serving a life sentence for murder. Others serving time in Georgia’s prisons and a corrupt correctional officer were also part of the operation, according to the federal charges.
While “Ghost Busted” was a record-setting case, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found it is just one of many large, complex drug trafficking operations that authorities said were run by Georgia prison inmates, often with the help of prison employees. From 2015 to 2024, the AJC found, prosecutors have filed 28major cases involving drug trafficking operations run from inside more than two dozen Georgia state correctional facilities.