Around Our Area: Valdosta police make $88,000 drug bust; Cairo man captures 755-pound gator

derrick_alligator — Zack Derrick and his son Chaz sit atop a 755-pound alligator they caught on South Carolina's Lake Marion.

VALDOSTA – On Monday, Valdosta Police Department narcotics detectives received information that a large amount of marijuana was being delivered to a residence in the city limits.

An investigation was initiated and two packages of marijuana with an approximate weight of 6.4 pounds and 3.5 pounds were delivered to a person in the 2400 block of Muscogee Drive, according to VPD reports.

Venderick Dawson, 29, was determined to be the intended recipient of the packages. Dawson was arrested and is being held at the Lowndes County Jail pending warrants being signed for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and first degree forgery, reports stated.

The marijuana seized weighed approximately 9.9 pounds and had a street value of approximately $88,000, reports stated.

“This is a significant amount of marijuana that will not be out on the streets due to the hard work and diligent investigation of the Valdosta Police Department Narcotics Unit,” said VPD Capt. Bobbi McGraw.

(Information from the Valdosta Daily Times)

Cairo, Ga. man kills 755-pound gator on South Carolina lake

Zack Derrick and his son Chaz sit atop a 755-pound alligator they caught on South Carolina's Lake Marion. — Zack Derrick and his son Chaz sit atop a 755-pound alligator they caught on South Carolina’s Lake Marion.

After three hours of tracking alligators through the murky waters of Lake Marion near Stumphole Landing on Saturday afternoon, Zack Derrick said he finally saw one through his binoculars.

Derrick, flanked by his 8-year-old son Chaz Derrick, who was getting a little restless after three hours of waiting, and his uncle Peewee Derrick, thought the eyes he spied were attached to maybe a 10- to 12-foot alligator. But just beneath the surface those eyes belonged to a 13-foot-5-inch monster of a gator weighing 755 pounds.

Derrick, a Cairo, Ga., resident who is a South Carolina native, knew his plan of attack; he had gone on alligator hunts before with his father and uncle: cast a line out, wait for him to take the bait, and be prepared for the ensuing hour-long battle with an animal that traces its lineage to the dinosaurs.

Read the exciting story of how the Derricks captured the record-setting alligator at The State

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