MEMPHIS, Tenn. – For the first time, members of a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force are speaking about the investigation and capture of one of the most dangerous men in Memphis whose connections included members of the Mexican cartel.
Craig Petties is currently serving nine life sentences in federal prison. He was convicted of murder, conspiracy and drug trafficking in 2013.
The Task Force leader in charge of the investigation, former DEA Agent Abe Collins, said Petties first appeared on federal law officials’ radar when he was a teenager in 1995.
A book called “GlaDEAtor” details federal and local law enforcement officers who played a part in an eight-year investigation into Pettis’ criminal activity.
It wasn’t until the 2000’s when the DEA started looking closer into his dealings with drugs.
They discovered he not only had criminal power in Memphis, but all across the South and East Coast with strong connections to the Mexican cartel.
Collins and members of the Task Force explain in the book that dangerous Mexican drug lords El Chapo and Le Barbie protected Petties and enabled him to hide out from American Law Enforcement in Mexico.