Every good financial advisor will tell you to make your money go to work for you. Why leave it in a savings account or under your mattress when you could invest it in a mutual fund, stocks, or, as one Georgia man recently did, a local meth ring?
In February 2015, Ronnie Music Jr. 45, won $3 million off a scratch-off ticket in his hometown of Waycross, Ga. Instead of investing that money in something safe—and legal—like an S&P 500 stock market index fund, which the New York Times notes would’ve netted him about $170,000 in returns, Music put the money into a meth ring, which was busted just nine months later. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
In September 2015, his accomplices were caught trying to sell about 11 pounds of crystal meth worth more than $500,000, prosecutors said. Music was identified as a source for the drug.
Agents seized more than $1 million worth of meth, firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, multiple vehicles and more than $600,000 in cash as part of the case, prosecutors said.
Last week, Music, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty to charges of federal drug trafficking and firearm charges, and could be sentenced to life in prison.
“Music decided to test his luck by sinking millions of dollars of lottery winnings into the purchase and sale of crystal meth,” United States Attorney Ed Tarver said in a statement. “As a result of his unsound investment strategy, Music now faces decades in a federal prison.”
The lesson? Meth rings may seem like a solid, recession-proof industry, but you probably shouldn’t invest in them.
