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NATCHEZ — A Mesquite, Texas, man was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette III to 90 months in federal prison for his participation in an interstate drug trafficking operation distributing kilogram quantities of illegal drugs in the Natchez area from 2016 through 2018, announced U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Special Agent in Charge Brad L. Byerley of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Jimmie Lee Swearengen Jr., 43, of Mesquite, was indicted by a federal grand jury and subsequently pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Swearengen had prior convictions in Adams County Circuit Court in 2001 for possession and sale of cocaine in a church zone, and in 2010 for controlled substance violations.

According to court documents, Swearengen conspired with Sammy Davis Wright, of Woodville, Wesley Bell of Natchez, Thomas Jerome Mitchell of Victorville, California, Justine Chambers of Victorville, and Arthur Wilson of Moreno Valley, California, to distribute kilogram quantities of methamphetamine in the Natchez area.  Wright, Mitchell, and Chambers were separately sentenced today for their participation in drug trafficking operations in the Natchez area. Arthur Wilson was convicted by a federal trial jury in August 2022 of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and marijuana, as well as conspiracy to commit money laundering for his operation of a separate drug trafficking organization in the Natchez area.  Wilson is scheduled for sentencing on January 11, 2023. Bell is currently awaiting sentencing.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. 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 OCDETF case is the result of an extensive investigation targeting illegal narcotics distribution by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force in Atlanta, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and the Pearl Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla J. Clark prosecuted these cases.