Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On August 8, 2022, William Roger Woodie, 33, of Calhoun, Georgia, was sentenced to 300 months in prison by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Greeneville.

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Woodie agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute 4.5 kilograms or more of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), and 841(b)(1)(A). After his term of incarceration, Woodie will be on supervised release for five years.

According to the plea agreement and other documents filed with the court, agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) and the Johnson City Police Department (“JCPD”) began an investigation into the trafficking of methamphetamine into the Eastern District of Tennessee in 2018. The investigation revealed that Woodie, who was incarcerated within the Georgia Department of Corrections, was responsible for arranging the trafficking of hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine into the region. In text messages recovered during the investigation, Woodie described himself as a “full time drug dealer.” During the investigation, 52 kilograms of methamphetamine and over 20 firearms were seized by law enforcement. Additionally, over 30 individuals from Woodie’s network have been convicted as a result of the investigation. This organization obtained methamphetamine primarily from the Atlanta, Georgia area and distributed it within eastern Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

This case was the result of an investigation by DEA, JCPD, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department, the Bristol, Tennessee Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas McCauley and Emily Swecker represented the United States.

This investigation is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.