MOULTRIE, Ga. — Over the past year a small group watched as a home-grown Colquitt County enterprise flourished. But any dreams of continuing that business were dashed on Tuesday morning, however, with its sudden closing due to the product on offer being crystal meth.

The arrest of more than a dozen people in the county that began in the wee hours of the morning effectively shut down a large drug distribution ring that had been under investigation for the past 12 months and had ties to Atlanta and into Florida, according to police.

The Colquitt County element in the ring purportedly got its supply from a criminal organization in Atlanta and then distributed it here and in surrounding counties as well as into north and central Florida, said Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Sean Ladson. Ladson, who heads up the office’s Drug Enforcement Team, said that the investigation it started eventually came to involve the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“As a direct result of this investigation, about three weeks ago 33 people were indicted by the U.S. attorney of the Middle District of Georgia,” he said. “Today was the culmination (locally) of that investigation. We arrested 16 people of the 33 that were indicted.”

The 16 people arrested were roughly evenly split between men and women, and included a mix of black and white suspects and one Latino woman. The majority of those arrested face drug-trafficking charges. Names of those arrested were not released.

Those arrested were loaded onto a bus at Spence Field and taken directly to federal custody in Albany. Law enforcement agencies often prefer to prosecute local cases through federal court because a conviction in that venue means a stiff sentence in a federal prison system that does not have a parole system and in which inmates generally do 90 percent or more of the sentence imposed on them.

Ladson said that the GBI estimated the head of the Colquitt County ring was bringing in up to six pounds of pure crystal meth a week — which may be a conservative figure — and was selling it for $600 per ounce. At the time the investigation started the operation was much smaller and was not bringing in the drug in such large quantities.

Only about a half-ounce to an ounce of suspected methamphetamine was seized on Tuesday, and no weapons were found in the operation. The Moultrie Police Department, along with Lowndes and Thomas counties, assisted in Tuesday’s arrests which occurred in multiple locations in Moultrie and out in the county. Some of the specific areas included Sylvester Drive, as well as Southeast and Southwest Moultrie and Edmondson Road.

Some of the other 33 people had been arrested before Tuesday’s roundup, including some of the Atlanta players who are members of the gang or cartel. Ladson said he could not identify the name of that group at this time.

“I feel good that what we’re doing is crippling these suppliers here,” Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell said. ‘We’re very happy with the agencies helping us.”