DEA seizes $1.6M in meth from Stone Mountain home linked to cartel

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. - Just a month after DEA officials in Atlanta seized 855 pounds of meth from a storage unit in Norcross, another massive drug bust in DeKalb County led them to find even more drugs and money. 

"We found approximately 370 kilos of methamphetamine, and we haven’t got a count on it yet but it’s well over $100,000 in cash," DEA Special Agent Robert J. Murphy said at a news conference Wednesday. 

DEA agents with help from DeKalb County SWAT and drug unit officers made the discovery Tuesday night during a raid at a home on Stone Trace in Stone Mountain. 

Murphy said the street price for that product was around $1.6 million. 

"Two individuals were arrested who were illegally in the country and had been here for a very short time," he said. 

Authorities identified one of the men arrested as Jonathan Guzman Esquibel, while the other refused to give a name. 

Murphy said they believe the two men and both busts in Norcross and Stone Mountain are connected to the Mexican drug cartel Jalisco New Generation. 

"Very similar sized seizure and the packaging…this is the same organization," he told reporters. 

Officials believe the majority of the drugs found were going to be sold in and around metro Atlanta. 

"What we saw before was stockpiled in a storage unit…this was obviously moved out and ready for distribution," Murphy said. 

DEA officials said Atlanta has become a hot spot for drug trafficking. 

"Its location, a network of highways, the ability to go up the coast down the coast into the Midwest… and they can blend into communities," Murphy explained. 

This second bust brings the total amount of meth seized in a month to 1,000 kilos from this one cartel organization.