Dover Meth Kingpin Caged: 12.5 Years

⏱ 2 min read

Amir Watts, 35, is headed for a long stretch behind bars. The Dover, Delaware hustler was sentenced to 12 and a half years in federal prison yesterday after being convicted of dealing meth and illegally possessing a firearm. Watts wasn’t some small-time corner boy, either. He’d been moving significant quantities of the drug, even directly to an undercover cop, before the feds and state cops finally caught up.

The bust went down after authorities discovered Watts had two pounds of pure methamphetamine stashed. They also found a gun – a tool, prosecutors argued, to protect his illicit operation. The combination of hard drugs and firearms, U.S. Attorney Benjamin L. Wallace declared, was a “lethal combination.”

Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika handed down the 150-month sentence. Watts faced the music in federal court, brought down by a joint operation between the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Delaware State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Claudia L. Pare successfully prosecuted the case, laying out the evidence of Watts’s drug dealing and gun possession.

DEA’s Thomas Hodnett signaled this wasn’t just about one bust. “We will continue to relentlessly pursue those who threaten the safety of our communities,” Hodnett said. Watts’s lock-up sends a message: Delaware’s streets are getting a little less dangerous, one kingpin at a time.