CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – A Mount Pleasant man has been sentenced to 27 years in federal prison for supplying cocaine to a drug trafficking organization that operated in a North Charleston neighborhood.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina, M. Rhett DeHart, said evidence presented during a recent sentencing hearing revealed Lamar Louis Johnson, 39, also known as “McJag,” distributed dozens of kilograms of cocaine in the Charleston area dating back to 2019.

Johnson was one of 12 charged in July 2019 during the first wave of “Operation Lowcountry Line,” which was a joint federal, state, and local multi-year investigation led by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

The operation specifically targeted members of the “Dorchester Terrace Crew” or “4-mile” gang, which imported large quantities of drugs and distributed them to low-level dealers.

“According to the fifty-count superseding indictment, the case targeted members of a street gang who obtained bulk supplies of heroin, cocaine, and other narcotics from interstate sources of supply and then redistributed the drugs to street-level drug dealers in the greater Charleston area,” DeHart’s office announced.

The indictment also revealed gang members and associates threatened violence and used firearms to defend themselves and their criminal enterprise from rival drug dealers and gang members.

An additional 12 were charged in a second-round indictment in mid-2020. DeHart says 22 of the 24 defendants, including Johnson, have pleaded guilty so far.

“The North Charleston Police Department is appreciative of the work of the United States Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners, which assisted in the lengthy investigation, successful prosecution of the cases developed, and fair sentencing of the defendant,” stated Chief of Police Reggie Burgess of the North Charleston Police Department. “One of the themes of the North Charleston Police Department is to create safer neighborhoods for our citizens and the sentence of this offender assists us in our mission.”

U.S. District Judge David Norton sentenced Johnson to 324 months in federal prison, to be followed by a five-year term of court-ordered supervision.