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Georgia lottery winner invests millions into crystal meth trafficking ring

Posted at 3:12 PM, Jul 27, 2016
and last updated 2016-07-27 15:12:11-04

BRUNSWICK, Ga. – Most of you would buy a new car or a new house if you won millions in the lottery. Maybe you’d invest in a company or go on a globe-spanning trip.

But a Georgia man apparently hoped to become the next Walter White, the methamphetamine mastermind from the TV show “Breaking Bad.”

It didn’t work out for Ronnie Music Jr., 45, who won $3 million in a scratch-off lottery game last year and decided to invest that money in a crystal meth trafficking ring, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

According to federal prosecutors, Music pleaded guilty last week on federal drug trafficking and firearms charges. His co-conspirators were caught trying to sell 11 pounds of crystal meth worth about $500,000 in September 2015. Music was then identified as the supplier, prosecutors said.

He allegedly used money from his lottery win to buy the meth so he could resell it. During the investigation, agents seized more than $1 million in meth along with guns, ammunition, vehicles and $600,000 in cash.

“Music decided to test his luck by sinking millions of dollars of lottery winnings into the purchase and sale of crystal meth,” said U.S. Attorney Ed Tarver.

Tarver said the “unsound investment strategy” could result in a life sentence.

The ATF and DEA were among the agencies that investigated the case.