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ALBANY — A Forsyth, Georgia, man who federal officials said was a high-ranking member of the Ghostface Gangsters gang was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday for his role in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy.

The announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Donald Jason Miles, 39, was an inmate at Valdosta State Prison at the time of the incident in which he was charged. A search of the Department of Corrections online database indicates he is still at VSP.

Miles, also known as “Crash” and “Cocho,” pleaded guilty Nov. 13 to one count of conspiracy to possess methamphetamine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced Tuesday to serve 360 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. 

Two co-conspirators were sentenced to prison on Feb. 28: Warren Frederick Courts, aka “Dirty,” 38, of Marietta, was sentenced to serve 240 months in prison to be followed by five years of supervised release after he previously pleaded guilty Aug. 1, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and Keeli Nycole Wallace, 34, of Covington, was sentenced to serve 40 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release after she previously pleaded guilty Aug. 14, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to court documents and statements referenced in court, undercover Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents conducted a drug bust at Motel 6 in Albany on Sept. 12, 2022, resulting from a larger investigation into drug trafficking from Georgia prisons. Agents learned Courts, a state prisoner, had arranged a drug transaction from behind bars and hired Wallace as a drug courier to move methamphetamine from a Mexico-based source located in metro Atlanta to Southwest Georgia. Agents arrested Wallace in the parking lot of Motel 6, finding approximately 1,400 grams of methamphetamine and her cell phones.

Investigators discovered that Miles had recruited Wallace as a drug courier several months before her arrest, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, still citing court documents and statements referenced in court. Wallace admitted she had performed 10-15 deliveries of 250 grams or less of methamphetamine at Miles’s direction. Miles introduced Wallace to Courts; both Miles and Courts are members of the prison-based criminal organization Ghostface Gangsters. Courts is a subordinate of Miles, as demonstrated by Courts giving Miles a portion of the profits he made from selling narcotics. 

During one transaction, Courts instructed Wallace to obtain methamphetamine from a Mexico-based source of supply near Atlanta and take it to meet a buyer at a Walmart in Albany, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The buyer did not show up, and Miles instructed Wallace to return to Atlanta. The next day, Courts told Wallace that the intended buyer was ready. She returned to Motel 6 in Albany, where she was subsequently arrested.

At the time, Miles was incarcerated at Valdosta State Prison, and Courts was incarcerated at Rutledge State Prison for separate drug trafficking offenses. Georgia Department of Corrections officers searched their prison cells and recovered contraband mobile phones on Sept. 16, 2022. 

Search warrants were executed on the phones, and investigators discovered detailed communications between Miles, Courts and Wallace related to the drug conspiracy, including communications involving the Mexico-based source of supply and the trafficking of large quantities of methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. 

The investigation revealed that Wallace was just one courier recruited by Miles and that Miles and Courts had funneled numerous redistributors to the Mexican source of supply near Atlanta, resulting in the distribution of at least 50 kilograms of methamphetamine in two months as a part of this conspiracy. Of the 50 kilograms distributed, Courts was directly responsible for facilitating the distribution of approximately 13 kilograms, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.