ATLANTA — The US Attorney says former Gwinnett County deputy and Homeland Security officer Antione Riggins has pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from evidence and is headed to prison for the next 10 years for his crimes.
“Riggins put dangerous drugs back on the street after they had been seized by law enforcement,” US Attorney Byung J. Pak said. “He violated the most basic oath of officers to protect the public. His conviction and sentence is a victory for the rule of law, and it shows that there are severe consequences for abusing the public’s trust.”
According to Pak, in 2017, Riggins was a federally-deputized task force officer with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), while he was also employed as a deputy sheriff with the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office. He was responsible for investigating drug trafficking cases and transporting seized drugs from HSI crime scenes to the sheriff's office evidence room.
According to court documents, on February 23, 2017, three kilograms of cocaine was seized by HSI after a high-speed chase and crash on Interstate 285. HSI was able to identify the suspected owner of the drugs, even though he had fled from the crash and was not caught.
HSI tasked Riggins with transporting the cocaine to the sheriff's office evidence vault. According to Pak, on the following day, however, Riggins had only checked in one gram of cocaine instead of three, and had failed to secure a warrant for the arrest of the cocaine trafficker.
In addition, Riggins had crafted a falsified evidence form claiming the identity of the drug trafficker was not known and that only one kilogram of cocaine was seized at the crash scene.
On July 14, 2017, HSI seized about six kilograms of methamphetamine from an Atlanta hotel room. According to court documents, Riggins was tasked by an HSI agent with transporting the meth to the evidence vault, however, none of the drugs from the arrest was subsequently checked into evidence.
Three days later, about four kilograms of heroin and 172 oxycodone pills were seized by HSI from a metro Atlanta stash house. Pak said that once again, Riggins was tasked with transporting the drugs to the evidence room. He said that Riggins made off with all but 96 grams of the heroin.
Riggins's career at HSI came to an end in early 2018. His employment with the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office came to an end once the allegations came to the attention of law enforcement in May 2018.
On November 25, 2019, Riggins pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and making a false statement to cover up his drug crimes. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by five years on supervised release.
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