Man convicted in Columbus drug case had ‘enough fentanyl to kill 29,525 people’
A man known as “See-Mo” and “Squirrel” has been convicted in a Columbus criminal case involving what Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Don Kelly called one of the largest local drug and gun seizures in recent memory.
Kelly announced Tuesday that Clarence Warren was convicted on 18 felony counts, including:
- Two counts of trafficking fentanyl
- Three counts of trafficking methamphetamine
- Three counts of trafficking heroin
- Possession of firearm during commission of a felony
- Possession of illegal weapon (sawed-off rifle)
- Possession of stolen weapon
- Possession of firearm by convicted felon.
Chattahoochee Circuit Superior Court Judge John Martin sentenced Warren to serve a total sentence of 20 years in the penitentiary followed by 20 years on probation and a $10,000 fine.
88-count indictment against Clarence Warren
The 88-count indictment against Warren arose out of an extended investigation by members of the Columbus Police Department’s Special Operations Unit, which began in May 2019, according to the district attorney’s news release.
“The officers conducted intensive surveillance of Warren and his co-defendants, including the obtaining of car rental and social media records through search warrants. Warren was, according to the officers, not making much of an attempt to disguise his drug sale activities and openly discussed amounts and pricing of heroin and methamphetamine with his customers on social media,” the news release says. “Through analysis of these records, officers were able to determine that he was distributing large amounts of heroin in the Columbus area and was travelling to the Atlanta area to obtain heroin and methamphetamine using a series of cars rented for him by a co-defendant.”
During a murder investigation, the Columbus Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division executed a search warrant at one of Warren’s apartments and found trafficking amounts of heroin and methamphetamine, according to the district attorney.
A month later, drug investigators served search warrants at three other locations associated with Warren and found 98 grams of heroin, 91 grams of fentanyl, 600 grams of methamphetamine, alprazolam tablets, and 10 firearms, one of which was illegal (sawed-off) and one of which was stolen, the news release says.
After being taken into custody, Warren gave a statement to police in which he admitted to selling marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, “ecstasy” and heroin, according to the district attorney.
Warren told officers they had “caught him light” and that he was planning within a few days to purchase and bring into Columbus a kilogram of heroin, two kilograms of methamphetamine, two kilograms of cocaine and around 5,000 “ecstasy” tablets, the news release says.
Warren has prior drug convictions dating back to 2003. He is serving a prison sentence in Alabama and entered his Muscogee County guilty plea in a virtual hearing via teleconference Thursday.
Putting the conviction of Clarence Warren in perspective
“The amount of fentanyl being distributed by Warren was really alarming”, Senior Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Schwartz, who was the prosecutor assigned to the case, said in the news release. “The CDC and DEA tell us that just two milligrams of fentanyl is a potentially fatal dose.
“What this means is that Warren had enough fentanyl to kill 29,525 people. To put that in perspective: that’s almost as many people as the populations of Chattahoochee, Taylor, Marion and Talbot counties combined. Or about 14% of the entire population of Columbus-Muscogee County.”
Kelly said in the news release, “We commend the good work of the Columbus Police Department in conducting a great investigation and bringing us strong evidence. Taking a dealer like Warren out of commission is the sort of case that makes a substantial positive impact on the safety of the community.”
