An Atlanta promotions company co-owner, Woodie Louis Ochle, has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for conspiracy to distribute thousands of MDMA pills throughout raves in the Southeast.
Ochle pled guilty to the charges back in April, but now it’s official. The sentence was handed down U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Haikala, in agreement with law enforcement officials, as the 40-year-old was proven guilty of conspiracy to distribute large quantities of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine.
Between February 2015 and April 2016, Ochle led an organization that distributed “molly” across the Southeastern United States, primarily in Alabama and Georgia — according to court testimony. His Atlanta-based business Freakstep Promotions worked to plan concerts and dance parties, and then also distribute illegal drugs to ravers.
“Woodie Ochle unlawfully enriched himself through an illicit drug network he devised at the expense of young people,” U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town stated.
“Ochle is among our worst offenders because his exploitation of a combination of youth and willfulness, underscored by his criminal greed, created both addicts and victims. We have bed space reserved in our Bureau of Prisons for Mr. Ochle and those like him.”
Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating the large-scale smuggling/distribution of various controlled substances back in 2016, which led straight to Ochle and his partners in crime. At one point, 1,000 “Red Supreme” ecstasy pills were confiscated and the finger was pointed at Ochle as the leader of the drug ring.
Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement seized approximately 30 pounds of illegal drugs, including about 20,000 pressed ecstasy pills, and four pounds of crystal “molly,” according to the report.
Source: Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama