Members of Multi-State Drug Trafficking Organization sentenced

United States Attorney Beth Drake announced today that 40-year-old Jimmy Hallums and 34-year-old Christine Wellwood were sentenced to 188 months imprisonment and 144 months imprisonment, respectively in federal court in Greenville. The evidence presented during their guilty pleas and sentencing hearings showed that Hallums met the leader of the organization, Dustin Tiller, while both men were serving prison sentences in the South Carolina Department of Corrections in 2015 for drug offenses. Working in conjunction with Tiller and at Tiller’s direction, Hallums recruited drug couriers, rented storage units to store drugs, met with sources of supply, and facilitated the shipment of methamphetamine from the Atlanta area to the Upstate of South Carolina for redistribution in South Carolina. Hallums and a courier he recruited were arrested by federal and state law enforcement officials on March 8, 2016, in Georgia while traveling in tandem with approximately 20 pounds of methamphetamine. Wellwood also was closely associated with Tiller. The evidence showed that Wellwood acted as a money courier for Tiller. At his direction, Wellwood would meet with high-ranking members of the organization, would receive drug proceeds, and would transport the proceeds to locations that Tiller designated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Moorman, Deputy Chief for the Narcotics Unit, is the lead prosecutor. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Drug Enforcement Task Force, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the Anderson Police Department, and the Franklin County, Georgia Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.