GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - On Aug. 1, 2019, Harry Keilholtz, 54, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was sentenced by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 240 months in federal prison following convictions for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and for possessing firearms in furtherance of his drug trafficking.
According to his plea agreement on file with the U.S. District Court, Keilholtz was the out of state source of supply for this particular methamphetamine conspiracy operating in the Eastern District of Tennessee. A federal search warrant was executed at Keilholtz’s residence in Stone Mountain, Georgia, on Feb. 12, 2016. Numerous customers/co-conspirators were present at the time the warrant was executed. Keilholtz attempted to flee but was apprehended in the back yard. A search of the residence revealed over one kilogram of methamphetamine, a loaded AK-47 rifle, ammunition, and scales. A loaded 9mm pistol was found on Keilholtz’s person.
A few weeks after the execution of the search warrant, Keilholtz became a fugitive. Approximately 30 months later, in November 2018, Keilholtz was finally located and arrested in Panama City, Florida. During the sentencing hearing, an obstruction of justice enhancement was applied to Keilholtz’s sentence due to his fugitive status for about two and half years. In upholding the obstruction of justice enhancement, U.S. District Court Judge R. Leon Jordan noted that Keilholtz had been living under an alias name, had lived in multiple cities during the time of his flight, had identification in someone else’s name, was driving a vehicle registered to someone else, and was living in a recreational vehicle registered to someone else.
Law enforcement agencies participating in the investigation included the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office, Morristown, Tennessee Police Department, and the Third and Fourth District Judicial Drug Task Forces. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Taylor represented the United States.
This case was a result of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy. OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
