Repeat Offender Sentenced to 30 Years in Cherokee County for Trafficking Meth

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — Cherokee County Superior Court Judge Shannon Wallace has sentenced a repeat offender to 30 years in prison following his conviction for trafficking methamphetamine, District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway announced.

Ricky Dwight Wright, 39, of Fannin County, was found guilty by a Cherokee County jury on February 24. He was sentenced the following day as a recidivist offender and ordered to pay the mandatory $1 million fine required under Georgia law for trafficking more than 400 grams of methamphetamine.

The case began shortly after 1:15 a.m. on March 4, 2025, when a Woodstock Police officer conducted a traffic stop on an Acura sedan traveling northbound on Interstate 575 after learning an individual connected to the vehicle had an active warrant.

During the stop, a passenger attempted to conceal and discard a drawstring bag. Officers quickly recovered the bag, which contained more than 175 grams of methamphetamine packaged in plastic grocery bags.

Woodstock Police K-9 Tesa was deployed for an open-air sniff and alerted to narcotics inside the vehicle. Officers then located a second grocery bag hidden beneath towels on the rear passenger floorboard containing approximately 993 grams of methamphetamine. In total, investigators seized more than one kilogram of the drug.

A forensic review of Wright’s cellphone later uncovered text messages discussing travel from North Georgia to Atlanta to obtain methamphetamine.

“This case began with a Woodstock Police officer whose proactive policing led to the seizure of more than a kilogram of methamphetamine and to three offenders ultimately being held accountable. As a result, our community is now safer,” said Assistant District Attorney Leland J. McElveen Jr., who prosecuted the case.

Prosecutors presented testimony from six law enforcement witnesses along with dash camera footage, photographs of the seized drugs, and Wright’s text messages. After less than two days of testimony, jurors deliberated approximately 15 minutes before returning a guilty verdict.

“Thanks to the vigilance of law enforcement and the jury’s verdict, a repeat offender who was trafficking a significant amount of methamphetamine will no longer be able to poison our community,” District Attorney Treadaway said. “This sentence reflects both the seriousness of his crime and his continued pattern of criminal behavior.”

Two co-defendants previously entered guilty pleas:

• Ashley Nicole Hughes, 36, pled guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute, and tampering with evidence after admitting she discarded a bag of methamphetamine during the traffic stop. She was sentenced in November 2025 to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay a $200,000 fine.

• James Lovejoy, 37, pled guilty to trafficking methamphetamine and was sentenced in January 2026 as a recidivist offender to 30 years, with the first 25 years to be served in confinement, along with a $1 million fine.

The investigation was conducted by the Woodstock Police Department with assistance from the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Leland J. McElveen Jr. of the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office.