Three convicted in Carolinas meth conspiracy

FLORENCE — A federal jury took an hour to convict three men — including two from Chesterfield County — of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in the Carolinas after an eight-day trial in Florence, U.S. Attorney Walter Wilkins said in a press release issued Friday morning.

David Earl Watts, 49, of Polkton, N.C., and Flint Davis Ratliff, 46, of Chesterfield face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.

James Barnard Haithcock, 50, of Blenheim faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and maximum of 40 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Terry L. Wooten will sentence the trio after presentence investigation reports are completed in the case.

Watts, Ratliff and Haithcock were involved in manufacturing methamphetamine since 2002 in Florence, Chesterfield, and Marlboro counties in South Carolina and Anson and Union counties in North Carolina. The three were responsible for teaching more than 10 people how to make methamphetamine in clandestine laboratories, and the conspiracy was responsible for most of the meth labs seized in the Pee Dee and Anson and Union counties since 2004.

Co-conspirators who testified against the three during the trial admitted to stealing anhydrous ammonia tanks from businesses in Florence and many farms throughout the Pee Dee.

Watts’ wife admitted the group was producing more than 20 ounces of methamphetamine a month. Co-conspirators also testified that Watts, Ratliff, and Haithcock often carried firearms.

Watts’ brother and son were arrested on federal complaints the week before the trial for threatening government witnesses and, in the case of Watts’ son, for beating up the son of a government witness.

Watts has a prior murder conspiracy conviction, which involved a murder-for-hire scheme in Anson County, N.C.

The lead investigators on the case were Joe Koenig of the Florence County Sheriff’s Office and DEA Task Force; Chris Page of the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office; and Brian Tice of the Anson County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office.

The Marlboro County and Union County Sheriff’s offices, State Law Enforcement Division, Wadesboro (N.C.) Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Marshal’s Service also assisted in the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Rose Mary Parham and Buddy Bethea of the Florence office prosecuted the case.