Meth ring suspect may be asked to repay $255,000 in proceeds
A member of a prominent North Georgia family was indicted in federal court last week on drug charges.
Wesley Gage Weldon, 41, the brother of a former state representative and the son of a doctor, faces charges of distributing methamphetamine and possessing at least 500 grams of the drug with intent to distribute. According to the indictment, prosecutors believe he made at least $255,000 in illegal sales.
Tom Weldon, who represented Ringgold in the state Legislature from 2009 through last year, told the Times Free Press on Monday that he was unaware his brother had been indicted in the Eastern District of Tennessee’s federal court on Feb. 28. Tom Weldon, who is a lawyer, does not plan to serve as his brother’s counsel.
“I’m not sure how he’s going to be represented there,” Tom Weldon said. “We obviously want him to be represented.”
Tom and Wesley’s father, Dr. Darrell Weldon, served as the chairman of the board that controlled Hutcheson Medical Center before an outside company bought the hospital in bankruptcy court 16 months ago.
Wesley Weldon is in the Catoosa County Jail for an arrest in an unrelated case, in which sheriff’s office investigators say he ordered three associates to beat a man over accusations that the man had stolen from them. Wesley Weldon, who also led the police on a chase in that case in January, faces charges in Catoosa County of attempted murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and theft by receiving stolen property.
In the federal case, a DEA agent filed a complaint against Wesley Weldon, saying that in January 2016 he promised to sell methamphetamine to an undercover investigator. According to the court filing, agents trailed Wesley Weldon from Dalton, Ga., to the Chick-fil-A parking lot on Brainerd Road in Chattanooga.
He told the undercover agent that another source would meet them in the parking lot with the methamphetamine. The agent said he wasn’t interested in waiting. But before he left, Wesley Weldon gave the agent an ounce of methamphetamine. It’s not clear if Wesley Weldon and the agent communicated further.
According to the federal indictment, prosecutors will try to get $255,000 from Wesley Weldon if he is convicted. That payment is supposed to represent the money he received from drug dealing.
The indictment also lists two related cases: Kimberly Pickett and Randy Born, both of whom had entered agreements in U.S. District Court to plead guilty to being part of a methamphetamine distribution ring.
According to Pickett’s plea document, investigators found her at the Colonial Inn in Cleveland, Tenn., in June 2016 with 7 grams of methamphetamine, two bags of marijuana, a .380 Smith & Wesson pistol, $4,200 in cash and a written-out list of drug transactions.
Pickett told investigators she buys 4-8 ounces of methamphetamine three times per week from a source in Ringgold.
According to Born’s indictment, he provided a location and transportation for drug deals. He also helped collect money. In September 2014, the agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and DEA monitored a drug deal at the Chattanooga Inn, when Born and associates allegedly sold 3 grams of meth to a confidential informant.
The informant told the agent at the time that Born and the others were planning to drive to Atlanta to buy $30,000 worth of methamphetamine from a source.
The plea agreements for Pickett and Born do not mention Wesley Weldon.