Washington County, Florida Sheriff’s Office Arrests Large Group of Drug Offenders in Criminal Roundup on March 15, 2024

Sheriff Kevin Crews conducted a press conference yesterday regarding a large drug round up investigation here in Washington County. Below is Sheriff Crews comments during the press conference.

I want to begin by recognizing our law enforcement partners that assisted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office throughout this investigation.

Chipley Police Department

States Attorney’s Office 14^th Judicial Circuit

Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Jackson County Sheriff’s Office

US Attorney’s Office Northern District of Florida

Drug Enforcement Administration Northern District of Florida

This past September, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office working with the Drug Enforcement Administration indicted several Washington County residents for trafficking methamphetamine in our county. Those defendants are currently serving a combined federal prison sentence of 62 years.

We let it be known in September regarding these Federal indictments that this investigation is still on going.

The federal indictments of those individuals did not stop our investigation. In fact, we immediately began to identify the dealers that were purchasing methamphetamine from these major sources.

Six months later the investigation brings us to where we are today. We have charged 20 additional people for their part in this Drug Trafficking Organization that was based in Washington County. We consider these targets a tier below the dealers that were indicted in September. However, the evidence shows they conspired with those initially indicted to distribute methamphetamine in Washington County. As of this morning we have arrested 13 of the 20 targets that have outstanding warrants for their arrest. These arrests have been executed in Washington County, Jackson County, Bay County, and the state of Georgia.

All defendants are charged with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine under a state statute and use of a two-way communication device, which are both felony charges.

We have built this case and established strong probable cause for the arrest of each of these defendants by conducting several interviews, countless hours of surveillance and analyzing hours of digital data.

Washington County Sheriff’s Investigators have made 4 trips to Texas and conducted surveillance of top tier dealers in our area, tracking large quantities of meth back to our county and surrounding counties. Those people also have been federally indicted and are currently serving lengthy federal prison sentences.

Conspiracy charges are rare at the State level, but State Law requires law enforcement to charge those when there is evidence of criminality.

Most drug dealers think that they must be caught with the actual drugs in hand to be charged criminally. We went outside of the box on this investigation charging these defendants with felony charges to conspire to distribute meth in our county without the actual possession of the drug. In fact, we will be able to prove based on this investigation these defendants have distributed multiple pounds of methamphetamine in our county.

Complete list of those charged, including those already serving federal sentences is as follows:

Ashley Michelle Zurica

William Keith Carter

Ashley “Charlie” Elliott Brown

Donald Eugene Skipper

Brittany Rena Postelwait

Mary Amanda Chambers

James Louis Spivey

Kimberly Taylor Carter

Ronald Dalton Morris

Chip Steven Spence

Monica Renee Wilkinson