Roommate’s traffic beef was gang leader’s downfall

By Joe Johnson

If his roommate hadn’t been caught driving without a license reputed gang leader Kevin Castro might not be sitting in jail right now.

According to recently filed search warrant returns, Castro was arrested last June because he allowed police officers into his home when they were looking to serve an arrest warrant on his roommate on a charge of driving without a license,

When the officers saw in plain sight drugs, packaging materials and multiple weapons they immediately locked down the place and called for the regional drug task force to respond and search warrants were applied for.

Court filings show that evidence seized from Castro’s residence included large quantities of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, an AR-15 assault rifle, a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol, and a Mac-11 machine pistol with his gang’s “flag” tied around the magazine,

While building a drug trafficking case against Castro investigators established that he was a local leader of the 18th Street criminal street gang. An arrest warrant described him as an organizer who supervised drug sales protected by firearms.

On August 19th an Athens-Clarke County grand jury returned an indictment charging Castro with 10 felonies that include trafficking methamphetamine and participating in criminal street gang activity.

He pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment earlier this month, with no further court proceedings currently scheduled.