"Meth merchants" charged

Two stores owners have been sentenced for selling products knowing they would be used to make the drug methamphetamine. Mitesh Patel and Alpesh Patel were sentenced to two years of probation and four months of house arrest. They were convicted of distributing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine and other products from their northwest Georgia grocery stores. In all, 32 people pleaded guilty in the investigation into stores throughout northwest Georgia.