Police: Gwinnett Grocery Store Was Drug Shop
Officers Make Eight Arrests, Confiscate Drugs, Guns And Money
By Rebekka Schramm

POSTED: 12:36 pm EDT October 26, 2009
UPDATED: 4:55 pm EDT October 26, 2009


GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- Police say a street level drug operation has been dismantled with another big drug raid in Gwinnett County.

According to Gwinnett County investigators, a Hispanic grocery store east Grogan Street near downtown Lawrenceville was just a cover for a drug operation.

Inside the Carniceria y Fruteria el Parral, police found what essentially amounts to a drug shop.

On Friday, Gwinnett County police raided the store and two homes simultaneously, arresting eight people and confiscating six guns, 17 pounds of cocaine, three pounds of meth, two and a half pounds of marijuana and $130,000 cash.

The raids come just days after a series of nation-wide raids by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Thirty-one people in Gwinnett County were arrested in that raid and all are believed to be associates of the violent Mexican drug cartel La Familia.

“Last week was wholesale. Today is retail. These are the folks that are actually putting the drugs out on the streets, so they were supplied by someone,â€