Former NBA player Javaris Crittenton was arrested early Wednesday morning in a drug trafficking sting in metro Atlanta, one of 14 people taken into custody as part of the operation.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the suspects were indicted last Friday on multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit the crime of trafficking in cocaine and conspiracy to commit the crime of trafficking in marijuana. Crittenton’s booking record lists the charge as conspiracy to violate the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. The DEA says the group is accused of selling multi kilo quantities of cocaine and several hundred pounds of marijuana over a seven month investigation dating back to June 2012.
Atlanta Black Star reported that DEA agents, federal marshals and local police came to Crittenton’s home in Fayetteville, just south of Atlanta, and led him away in handcuffs before he was booked into the Fulton County Jail. The DEA said Crittenton and seven others will be prosecuted on state charges by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Gangs and Drugs Unit, while the remaining defendants face federal charges.
Crittenton was already out on $250,000 bond and under a 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew while awaiting trial on a murder charge. In April 2013, a Fulton County grand jury indicted him and his cousin in the August 2011 shooting death of Julian Jones, a 22 year old Atlanta mother of four. Prosecutors say the shooting was retaliation for a robbery, and that Crittenton was trying to shoot a man he believed had robbed him. No trial date has been set in that case.
The 26 year old Atlanta native starred at Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy and Georgia Tech before the Los Angeles Lakers took him in the first round of the 2007 NBA Draft. He also played for the Memphis Grizzlies and Washington Wizards, where he was suspended in 2010 after a locker room confrontation with teammate Gilbert Arenas in which both players had guns. Crittenton later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun possession charge and received a year of probation.
