Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced on November 13 that his Gang Prosecution Unit has secured a superseding indictment charging three more defendants in a multistate carfentanil trafficking operation based in Chatham County, bringing the total number of people charged in the case to nine. The original six defendants were indicted in September 2026.

Source: Georgia Attorney General's Office

A Chatham County grand jury returned the new indictment on November 4, 2026. The three newly charged defendants are Omar Ledesma, also spelled Ledezma; Leval Tyrone Pride, also known as Level Pride; and Travis Javonte Bright. Prosecutors also brought new charges against some of the original six, including Edkes Hakeem Mitchell, who was already facing roughly 50 counts and now faces additional charges of trafficking carfentanil and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. All of the charges are allegations, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid the Attorney General's office describes as 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. “If you're trafficking carfentanil, you're knowingly putting lives at risk, and we won't stand for it,” Carr said, adding that investigators kept working the case after the first arrests and recovered additional drugs and firearms. The case was investigated by the Chatham-Savannah Counter Narcotics Team, the Drug Enforcement Administration's district office in Savannah and its division office in Phoenix, Arizona, with assistance from the Gang Prosecution Unit.

How the enterprise allegedly worked

The indictment asserts that eight of the defendants formed a criminal enterprise at the centre of the case. Prosecutors allege the group procured carfentanil from the Phoenix, Arizona, area, coordinating with a Phoenix-based source of supply by phone, FaceTime, text message and iMessage, and procured marijuana from sources in California and elsewhere for distribution in Chatham County and throughout Georgia. Financial transactions between the Savannah-based members and the Phoenix source were allegedly disguised to conceal their true purpose.

According to the indictment, narcotics received from the Phoenix area were distributed throughout Chatham County via UPS or other couriers, the proceeds were used to support the Waters Ave Crew street gang and to maintain Mitchell's alleged leadership role in it, drugs and contraband were distributed to co-conspirators inside Georgia state prisons, and the group jointly operated multiple locations as safe houses from which drugs were stored and sold.

The indictment assigns roles to each member: carfentanil source of supply — Ledesma and Mitchell; marijuana source of supply — Mitchell and Rondell Javon Owens; procurement and transportation — Matthew Rigsby and Bright; carfentanil distribution — Mitchell, Owens and Pride; and money laundering — Mitchell, Rigsby, Rahemm Jawaun Jenkins, Tashiylah Nikeairia Riley, Owens and Bright. All eight enterprise defendants face at least one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and five — Mitchell, Owens, Jenkins, Devonta Rakeem Winn and Bright — also face charges tied to alleged association with the Waters Ave Crew, with Mitchell and Owens alleged to be high-ranking associates.

The charges, defendant by defendant

Mitchell, 34, of Savannah, is now listed with 52 counts, including 25 counts of money laundering, 17 counts of conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act, three RICO counts, three street-gang counts, two attempt counts, one count of trafficking carfentanil and one firearm count. Pride, 50, of Pooler, faces trafficking counts for both carfentanil and methamphetamine, three counts of possession of a firearm during a felony and three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Ledesma, 30, of Arizona — the alleged Phoenix-side source — faces one RICO count. Owens, 33, Jenkins, 34, Rigsby, 39, Riley, 30, and Winn, 34, all of Savannah, face combinations of RICO, gang, conspiracy and money-laundering counts set out in the indictment.

The case began publicly in September, when a grand jury indicted the first six defendants on September 2. Savannah television station WTOC reported at the time on a 43-page indictment containing 63 counts and 104 alleged criminal acts, and reported that several defendants were alleged to be members of the Waters Ave Crew, an East Savannah street gang with alleged ties to the Piru Bloods. Law enforcement recovered 20 pounds of carfentanil in the investigation, which the Attorney General says was intended for distribution in Chatham County and across the state.

What happens next: the nine defendants' cases will proceed in Chatham County Superior Court, where the state must prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. The Attorney General's office said no further information about the investigation or the indictment can be released at this time. An indictment contains only allegations; every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.