Special to the WJH BRUNSWICK — A Hortense man, the last of 76 defendants in a major south Georgia drug trafficking operation has been sentenced to federal prison, wrapping up an investigation into a gang-coordinated conspiracy that operated inside and outside Georgia prisons.
David D. Young, a/k/a “Khaos,” 44, was sentenced to 235 months (19 years, seven months) in prison after pleading guilty to Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute, and to Distribute Methamphetamine, said Tara M. Lyons, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
“Altogether as adults, the 76 defendants in Operation Ghost Busted have been convicted of more than 250 felonies —and more egregiously, this investigation linked their drug trafficking operation to multiple deaths from dozens of overdoses,” said Lyons. “Our community is demonstrably safer with these drug distributors off the streets, and we applaud our law enforcement partners for the outstanding investigative work to put these defendants behind bars and bring this case to a successful conclusion.”
A co-defendant, Blake K. Screen, 36 of Brunswick, was sentenced to 100 months in prison just five months after his conviction at trial on charges of Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and to Distribute Methamphetamine and Fentanyl, and Possession with Intent to Distribute Fentanyl. U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood also ordered each of the defendants to serve three years of supervised release upon completion of their prison terms.
After the December 2022 indictment and subsequent sweep to bring the defendants into custody, Young was a fugitive for more than a year until he was identified through his extensive Ghost Face Gangsters facial tattoos and taken into custody in March 2024 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, after being featured on “America’s Most Wanted.”
For more than two years, investigators from the FBI Coastal Georgia Violent Gang Task Force, the Glynn County Police Department, the Brunswick Police Department, the Glynn County Sheriff's Office, and the Camden County Sheriff's Office collaborated with multiple federal, state, and local agencies to identify the sprawling drug trafficking network.
Operating inside and outside Georgia prisons, the conspiracy was coordinated by members of the Ghost Face Gangsters working with affiliates of other criminal street gangs including the Aryan Brotherhood, Bloods and Gangster Disciples.
Believed to be the largest drug trafficking prosecution in the history of the Southern District of Georgia, Operation Ghost Busted was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence- driven, multiagency approach.
Agencies involved in the investigation include the FBI Coastal Georgia Violent Gang Task Force; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; the Georgia Department of Corrections; the Georgia Department of Community Supervision; the Glynn County Police Department; the Brunswick Police Department; the Glynn County Sheriff’s Office; and sheriff’s offices from Pierce, Camden, Wayne, Treutlen, McIntosh, Toombs, Telfair, Dodge, and Ware counties. The case was prosecuted for the United States by Southern District of Georgia Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jennifer J. Kirkland and Criminal Division Deputy Chief E. Greg Gilluly, Jr.
