Reports of gunfire in Savannah’s Augusta Road area in September 2023 prompted local police and federal agents to launch a joint investigation targeting violent crime and drug trafficking. Savannah police asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for assistance after officers noticed a troubling pattern in the West Savannah neighborhood. Authorities wanted to determine what was driving the violence. The investigation, called “Operation West Savannah,” brought together ATF agents and officers from the Savannah Police Department’s Strategic Investigations Unit. Investigators described the neighborhood at the time as an “open-air drug market,” where people appeared to have free rein to sell guns and narcotics. Undercover agents made multiple purchases of guns and drugs, including hundreds of pills containing fentanyl, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Georgia. Authorities seized nine firearms during the operation. They included AR-style rifles and pistols. Some of the handguns had machine gun conversion devices, which allow semiautomatic weapons to fire automatically. One of the suspects, Maurice Williams, was arrested during a Savannah police traffic stop in September 2024. Police found two guns, including one equipped with an illegal machine gun conversion device. Officers also recovered about 150 pills, some containing oxycodone or fentanyl, along with more than 300 grams of marijuana. Williams was convicted and sentenced…
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