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Pellicano found guilty in drug case

J.D. Sumner

MACON — Brian Ashley Pellicano, a suspect in an on-going marijuana case stemming from the discovery of grow houses in Lee and Terrell counties, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court, authorities said.

Pellicano entered the guilty plea to federal obstruction charges during a pre-trial hearing, U.S. Attorney spokesperson Sue McKinney said.

Pellicano was indicted in February for obstruction after prosecutors said that he helped dismantle a marijuana growing operation by helping co-conspirators store the equipment used at his home.

He will be sentenced at a later date, McKinney said.

Pellicano was one of five people indicted for obstruction or otherwise hindering the FBI, GBI and DEA’s attempts to investigate a multi-state marijuana growing operation.

One of Pellicano’s co-conspirators, Ed Thomas “Trey” Fulford III, was also scheduled to have a pre-trial hearing, but that court proceeding was continued, McKinney said.

Fulford, 30, was indicted for concealing a felony after prosecutors said that he knew that Charles “Chuckie” Payne and Richard Rouse were manufacturing marijuana in Sasser and failed to notify authorities.

During his pre-trial detention hearing, prosecutors entered evidence suggesting that Fulford had been taped during conversations with undercover FBI informants in which he threatened to shoot law enforcement officers if they approached his house.

He was ordered released on a $15,000 bond by U.S. Magistrate Richard Hodge.

Three others indicted Feb. 13 as co-conspirators with Fulford and Pellicano — Charlotte Mae Spencer, Michael Francis True and Margaret Elizabeth Shaw — are awaiting trial.

The five are among the first to come into federal court since the U.S. government took over the investigation into a marijuana manufacturing operation that was discovered in Lee and Terrell counties last Summer.

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