Gwinnett Meth Lab Near Elementary School Lands Trio In Prison

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA — Three cousins have been sentenced to federal prison for running a meth lab in a Norcross home where a child lived and less than 200 feet from an elementary school.

Roberto Arroyo-Garcia, 39, of Guerrero, Mexico, was sentenced Monday to 22 years in prison to be followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. Arroyo-Garcia had been previously deported on two separate occasions following prior drug convictions.

Cousins Zury Brito-Arroyo, 28, and Bonifacio Brito-Maldonado, 24, also both from Mexico, received comparable sentences in 2020. The three pleaded guilty in October of 2019.

The Justice Department statement left the elementary school unnamed. It was identified by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as Rockbridge Elementary School in Norcross.

According to court papers, a 2017 Homeland Security investigation into meth distribution led to a Norcross house they believed was being used as a lab.

While agents watched the house, a Georgia State Patrol trooper stopped Brito-Arroyo as he was driving away from it. Inside his car, they found $10,000 cash wrapped in green cellophane and a 9mm pistol. Brito-Arroyo’s 5-year-old child and wife were also in the car.

Agents then searched the house and found defendants Roberto Arroyo-Garcia and Bonifacio Brito-Maldonado “actively operating a methamphetamine laboratory” in a backyard shed, according to court papers. Chemical fumes coming from the operation were so strong that one of the men began vomiting.

Agents seized more than 10.7 kilograms of finished crystal methamphetamine from the shed and inside the house, some of which was over 90 percent pure, plus additional methamphetamine in liquid form that had not been fully processed into solid form for distribution. They also seized an additional 9mm pistol, $8,500 in cash, and other meth trafficking paraphernalia including respirators, rubber gloves, and digital scales.

Agents also searched another residence in Sandy Springs used by Brito-Arroyo, where they found a plastic bin with methamphetamine residue, another 9mm pistol, an electronic money counter, and four bundles of cash totaling $41,000 wrapped in green cellophane.

A team from the Drug Enforcement Administration came to remove the dangerous chemicals. Agents also found children’s clothes inside the house. They later confirmed that a 10-year-old child related to the defendants lived there.

“These men ran a lab churning out volatile and toxic chemicals to produce concentrated methamphetamine,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine said in Monday’s statement. “In doing so, they were exposing not only members of their own family, including children, an expectant mother, and a grandmother, to serious harm, but also innocent neighbors and school children who were completely unaware of the danger.”