DALTON, Ga. — A Tennessee man whose burned body was found in southern Whitfield County last month had been arrested for his part in a large-scale marijuana “grow and distribution network” in Nashville last summer.

In a press release Wednesday, Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirmed the body was that of Luis Antonio Lopez, 26. Chitwood said the man’s family reported him missing shortly after the body was found at the dead end of Ellis Road on Jan. 10.

Lopez was one of 11 people arrested in June following a two-year joint investigation by the Metro Nashville Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Homeland Security and the Nashville District Attorney’s Office, according to a press release on the Nashville city government website. The press release said the operation was run by Cuban nationals.

According to the press release, investigators dismantled grow sites in Macon, Lewis and DeKalb counties in Tennessee.

Chitwood said investigators believe Lopez may have been murdered in Tennessee and the body driven to Whitfield County to dispose of it. Chitwood said it appears the body was placed and partially burned less than 24 hours before it was discovered.

“Investigators from the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have been traveling to the Nashville, Tenn., area for the last few weeks and working with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other Tennessee law enforcement officials on the case,” said Chitwood.

Sheriff’s Office Capt. Rick Swiney said investigators are still not sure why the body was dumped where it was or why Whitfield County was chosen as the place to bring it. Swiney said investigators are not releasing Lopez’s cause of death at this time.