CHEROKEE COUNTY, Texas — An East Texas man pleaded guilty to manufacturing methamphetamine-laced pills on his property in Cherokee County and selling them throughout United States for profit.
Robert Jessie Martin, 45, of Alto, entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine on Tuesday in federal court, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Court information shows that Martin worked with others to distribute five kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of meth and 500 grams or more of actual meth. In this operation, Martin made and sold meth-laced pills. He set up rotary tablet pill presses on his Alto property to press out "hundreds of thousands of counterfeit pills" that were sold across the United States.
Martin recruited people for the operation and he supplied wholesale and mid-level distributors of the pills he manufactured, the court information said.
In July 2023, federal and state law enforcement found five firearms, five rotary pill presses, roughly 111 grams of actual meth, about 7,670 grams of meth in powder form, and over 29,000 meth-laced pills on Martin's property.
He faces from 10 years to life in federal prison. Officials will schedule a sentencing hearing after a presentence investigation from the U.S. Probation Office.
The following agencies investigated the case: Homeland Security Investigations; HSI Currency Narcotics Enforcement Team-Houston; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office; the Jacksonville Police Department; and the Texas Department of Public Safety.