A Chattooga County jury found Has Found Larry Dale Dooley guilty on one count of trafficking in methamphetamine and one count of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
The evidence at trial established that the defendant, a five-time convicted felon, was arrested in the
course of a sting operation conducted by the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force. Brian
Tucker, the deputy commander of the task force, spearheaded the operation, which commenced when
agents flipped two low-level drug users into informants. When the addicts-turned-informants called the
defendant at the direction of task force agents, he agreed to sell them an ounce of methamphetamine.
Following a thorough search of the informants and their vehicle, task force agents closely trailed the
informants all the way to the defendant’s home. When the informants pulled into the defendant’s
driveway, he got into the backseat of their vehicle holding a stainless-steel tumbler. Once the informants
pulled onto State Route 48, Deputy Commander Tucker activated his emergency lights, whereupon the
defendant threw a set of digital scales onto the highway. As soon as the informants brought their vehicle
to a stop on Ridgecrest Drive, task force agents swarmed the vehicle with guns drawn. When Agent Chris
Wooten opened the rear passenger door, he saw the defendant frantically trying to hide his tumbler. After
the police subdued the defendant, who forcibly resisted arrest, Deputy Commander Tucker searched the
backseat of the informants’ vehicle and found over seventy-five grams of methamphetamine secreted away
in the defendant’s tumbler.
Following the verdict, Chief Judge Kristina Cook Graham sentenced the defendant to thirty years’
imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
This prosecution epitomizes the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Atorney’s commitment
to combating the opioid epidemic by getting drug dealers and traffickers off of our streets.
