Man caught in 'Operation Juiced Out' gets 17 years for making meth

WILMINGTON, N.C. — A man arrested in a 10-month investigation of meth labs in Sampson County was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison Thursday on federal drug charges.

Senior U.S. District Judge James C. Fox also ordered Adam Strickland, 23, of Faison, to pay $5,130.89 in restitution and undergo five years of supervised release.

Strickland pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to manufacture, distribute, dispense and possess with the intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Strickland was one of eight people arrested in February 2008 as part of "Operation Juiced Out," a joint effort of federal and local authorities to break up meth labs in Sampson County.

In a news release Thursday, U.S. Attorney George B. Holding said Strickland produced 2.31 kilograms of meth from 2006 until his arrest, including 2.25 kilograms, with his roommate over a 90-day period.

"For nearly two years, this defendant, and others, daily manufactured poison that was dispensed into the streets of eastern North Carolina," Holding said. "The court's sentencing is a fitting response to this crime."

Holding said investigators also found several firearms and a 100-pound cylinder and smaller containers of anhydrous ammonia, a key ingredient of meth, in Strickland's house.