Upon her arrest, an Eatonton woman reportedly told detectives that she had been picking up “anywhere from 1 to 9 ounces of methamphetamine” every four to five days from Macon and bringing it back to Putnam County to sell to street drug dealers, Putnam County Sheriff’s Lt. Harry Luke said.
“She said she’s been doing it for about a year, so that’s 45 to 50 trips,” Luke noted, and identified the woman as Autumn Marie Carrey. “That’s a lot of methamphetamine for Putnam County. I mean, that’s what she admitted to, but whether or not it’s more than that, I don’t know.”
Luke and Putnam County Sheriff’s Detective J.D. Turk pulled Carrey’s car over for a traffic stop while she was driving back from Macon a little before sunup Saturday, Jan. 17. An Eatonton man named Robert Dodson Hough was riding in the car with Carrey.
Detectives found “just a little over an ounce” of methamphetamine in the car, but Luke reiterated that she later admitted to getting up to 9 ounces on each trip. Carrey told him she went to Macon-Bibb County because methamphetamine is almost $100 cheaper per ounce there than in Baldwin County. Meth averages around $45 per gram on the street, and there are 28 grams in 1 ounce. Luke said drug dealers would pay her money via CashApp or PayPal, and then she’d go to Macon to pick up the drugs.
“So, she’s able to make that money back pretty quick even though she’s taking a chance by driving that far,” he said. “They’d pay her the money because they trusted her, and she’d go down there, and in two hours’ time, she’d be right back with the dope.
“She’d probably make $50 to $80 an ounce on each ounce that she’d give to them,” Luke added. “And she’d keep (a half-ounce) of what they ordered, she’d keep for herself to resale, and she’d make even more money off of it.”
Supply and demand make the drug cheaper in Macon-Bibb than in Baldwin County.
“Because the people in Milledgeville, somebody’s got to traffic it to them, so there’s a ‘tax’ on it to bring it to a smaller town,” he said.
Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills said Carrey has been arrested so many times for the same or similar charges, “that it’s like giving her a traffic ticket.”
Luke said Hough also has a criminal record in two or three other states. In Putnam County, he was previously charged with aggravated assault, but was out on bond until his upcoming court date to face that charge.
Hough, 59, of Little Trail, Eatonton, and Carrey, 28, of Edgewater Drive, Eatonton, are being held without bond on possession with intent to sell methamphetamine, trafficking methamphetamine, possession and use of drug-related objects, and possession of methamphetamine.