It was the morning of May 7 and law enforcement officers were watching a house about 1,350 feet from Columbus East High School.
They were preparing to serve a search warrant when an officer said he saw a 38-year-old man of interest leave the residence, located at 726 Fairview Drive, and get into the driver’s side of a black Ford F-150 pickup truck that was parked in the driveway, according to court filings.
The man, later identified as Jeremy W. Sweet, had several run-ins with local law enforcement in previous years.
In 2015, Sweet admitted to police that he had been cooking and selling methamphetamine to “pay his bills” after officers found several firearms, ammunition, methamphetamine and dozens of pseudoephedrine pills in his house at 1415 N. County Road 850E, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The Department of Child Services also found a propane tank in the house that “had a blue to green tint that was consistent with anhydrous ammonia,” a key ingredient in methamphetamine, the affidavit states.
However, Sweet had recently crept back onto law enforcement’s radar as they continued their efforts to investigate the distribution of narcotics, and specifically methamphetamine, in the Columbus area.
Investigators say what happened next was the first in a series of events that would result in seven arrests on May 7 and marked the continuation of Operation Columbus Day — believed to be the largest drug trafficking investigation in Bartholomew County. The drug investigation unfolded over the course of three years as cheap, potent methamphetamine was flooding the streets of Columbus and fatal drug overdoses were starting to climb.
To date, the operation has resulted in more than 60 arrests — including at least 36 federal indictments and 23 local prosecutions — 25 federal convictions and dismantled a drug trafficking network in the Columbus area that investigators say had ties to a Mexican drug cartel.
SWAT raid
A short time after Sweet got into the truck on May 7, the CPD SWAT Team, which is comprised of officers from the Columbus Police Department and the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, swarmed the property, detaining him before he could exit the vehicle, according to court filings.
SWAT team members also entered the residence, finding Amanda Cea, 41, and Alexus Bush, 21, on a living room couch and Nicholas Miller, 21, in a bedroom.
Cea had a previous conviction for dealing methamphetamine, according to court filings.
In 2014, Cea was convicted of dealing methamphetamine after selling methamphetamine near the NAPA Auto Parts store on U.S. 31 in Columbus and the Circle K at the corner of 17th Street and Central Avenue, according to a probable cause affidavit.
As police continued their search of the Fairview Drive residence on May 7, they said they found a plastic bag of methamphetamine in Cea’s bedroom and two THC cartridges in Bush’s bedroom, the affidavit states.
In the garage, police said they found a bag of suspected synthetic marijuana, a digital scale, “multiple small baggies commonly used to package drugs for sale” and a root beer can with burnt drug residue, the affidavit states.
Outside the residence, CPD K-9 Argo alerted to the smell of narcotics coming from the truck Sweet was in, according to court documents.
Police obtained a warrant to search the truck and said they found a 9mm handgun in the center console and a “clear baggie containing a white crystal substance” in Sweet’s wallet, the court affidavit states.
The substance later tested positive for methamphetamine, according to court filings.
Sweet was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and possession of less than 5 grams of methamphetamine.
Cea was charged with possession of less than 5 grams of methamphetamine and maintaining a common nuisance.
Bush was charged with maintaining a common nuisance and possession of marijuana.
Unexpected discovery
That same morning, Columbus Code Enforcement officer Fred Barnett was inspecting a body shop about a mile away when he stumbled upon something that he had never encountered in more than six years on the job.
The shop, located at 518 S. Cherry St., had grabbed the attention of law enforcement, who had seen Sweet entering and leaving the building during the investigation, prosecutors said.
Barnett said he was on the property that day to follow up on what he described as a “collage” of violations found this past fall, including fire hazards, electrical problems, open containers of gasoline, among other issues.
But something caught his eye as he was walking inside the property — a safe that had been left open.
Barnett peered inside the safe and was surprised by what he found.
“That’s when I found the meth,” he said.
“That was the first time I’d ever found any kind of meth inside of a business,” he said.
However, it was not the first time that methamphetamine had been discovered in an automotive business in that part of Columbus in recent years.
Just a few blocks away was body shop on Mapleton Street where a Mexican national was convicted of operating a drug distribution center where “large amounts of methamphetamine” were being sold, according to federal court filings.
Barnett said he alerted the police, who later got a warrant to search the Cherry Street property.
Police then found a handgun, two rifles and a stolen black Chevrolet Corvette on the property, he said.
The 1985 Corvette was reported stolen in Morgan County in 2018, prosecutors said.
Barnett, as code enforcement officer, subsequently closed down the body shop, which was operating under the business name R&J Auto Body Repair LLC, according to public records.
“The meth was kind of like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Barnett said. “…There were so many other violations that were unsafe.”
Business filings show Rolando Marrero Colon as the company’s registered agent — a name that has appeared in local court filings and, at one point, was associated with a man who would be arrested in the coming hours.
Controlled buys
Later that day, investigators started to close in on three Columbus men they suspected were involved in dealing methamphetamine, including an individual who would be arrested after leaving the Cherry Street body shop.
Nearly two months earlier, an informant had contacted the Bartholomew County Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, alleging that Eric De Arcia, 18, was selling methamphetamine, according to court filings.
The informant agreed to set up a deal to purchase methamphetamine from De Arcia, and detectives planned a controlled buy, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Officers outfitted the informant with a recording device, electronic monitoring equipment and previously recorded money to buy the drugs.
The informant allegedly met De Arcia at an undisclosed location in Bartholomew County and bought more than 10 grams of methamphetamine, the affidavit states.
Several more controlled buys were conducted in the coming days, leading police to two more individuals — Alex De Arcia, 33, and Eriberto Sanchez-Hernandez, 33.
It was not the first time that Sanchez-Hernandez had popped up on the radar of local police, according to court filings.
In 2019, Columbus police pulled over a Toyota Corolla for speeding on East State Road 7 just west of U.S. 31 South, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The driver identified himself as Rolando Marrero Colon and gave the officer an Indiana driver’s license. He told police that he worked at a tire shop and the car belonged to a customer.
When verifying the driver’s license, a detective informed the officer that the ID was false, the affidavit says.
“The detective explained (the driver’s) real name was Eriberto Sanchez-Hernandez,” the officer states in the affidavit.
During a controlled buy earlier this year, Sanchez-Hernandez is accused of leaving a residence near where the transaction occurred and giving more than a pound of methamphetamine to Eric De Arcia, who then allegedly sold the drugs to an informant, according to court filings.
Sanchez-Hernandez was arrested at around 2 p.m. on May 7 after leaving the Cherry Street body shop, prosecutors said.
Sanchez-Hernandez was charged with dealing 10 or more grams of methamphetamine, possession of 28 or more grams of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a firearm and maintaining a common nuisance, court documents state.
Within the next couple hours, De Arcia were arrested in Sunnyvale Trailer Park and charged with three counts of dealing methamphetamine and delivery of 10 or more grams of methamphetamine, according to court records.
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