SAVANNAH, GA: A Savannah tire store owner has been sentenced to more than 10 years in federal prison after his conviction for distributing methamphetamine.
Reginald Anderson, a/k/a “Red,” 49, of Savannah, was sentenced to 125 months in prison after being found guilty at trial on three counts of Distribution of Methamphetamine, said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker also fined Anderson $5,000 and ordered him to serve three years of supervised release after completion of his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
“’Red’ Anderson could have prospered running a legitimate tire business, but instead he tried to inflate his profits by selling poison,” said U.S. Attorney Estes. “He has a sordid criminal history of drugs and violence, and our community is safer with this criminal retread doing hard time.”
As described at trial, Anderson was the owner of Anderson’s Tire Shop, and was indicted after he sold methamphetamine on multiple occasions to informants for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2018. Witnesses testified that Anderson had propositioned at least one person for sexual favors in exchange for narcotics, and that the methamphetamine that he was selling was nearly 100 percent pure “ice.” A federal jury convicted him on all counts after a two-day trial.
Anderson has multiple prior criminal convictions for drug trafficking, violence, and illegal possession of firearms.
“This defendant’s methamphetamine trafficking activities posed a significant threat to the quality of life in Savannah and elsewhere,” said Robert J. Murphy, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division. “‘Meth’ is not only volatile and toxic, but it destroys families, communities and lives. Because of the collective effort between DEA and its law enforcement partners, Reginald Anderson will no longer be able to distribute this toxic drug.”
The case was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Bearden and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Darron J. Hubbard.