Police find $200,000 in drugs, cash, machine guns at Columbia storage facility (update)

Columbia police spent three months looking for the son of a bank president after discovering one of the largest caches of illegal pills in city history near the University of South Carolina campus.

The seizure in May worked, police said. Incidents involving mood-alerting drugs like Xanax have dropped at USC since discovery of nearly 40,000 pills at a storage unit inside the Aspyre at Assembly Station apartments at Assembly and Whaley streets.

Matthew Ryan Garnett, 23, was arrested on drug possession charges after he was nabbed in a Five Points-area scuffle last week, Columbia Police Narcotics Investigator Anthony Branham told Free Times.

The son of NBSC President Chuck Garnett was released on bond, Branham said.

After receiving a tip in May, police found 29,139 alprazolam (commonly known as Xanax) pills, 10,421 marijuana pills and 100 grams of hashish at a storage unit. The pills and narcotics had an estimated street value of $200,000, police said.

They also recovered more than $10,000 in cash and several firearms, including an AR-15 rifle and two TEC-9 submachine guns.

Police believe college-age students were the main customers for the drugs seized. Garnett is listed in USC’s directory as a student at the College of Social Work.

While police are seeing fewer incidents with drugs like Xanax, pain medicines and stimulants remain issues at USC, Branham said.  

Columbia Police are not looking for any other suspects tied to the drug and gun seizure at Aspyre, said Branham, who added he has never heard of such a large drug bust in his two decades of working in Richland County law enforcement.

Two months after the seizure, arrest warrants were issued for Garnett in July when Richland County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the pills were alprazolam and synthetic marijuana, Columbia police said.  

Branham said he spoke to Garnett’s mother and family attorneys each once but did not speak to them again while officers' search continued.

Court records show Garnett received a traffic violation in September while Columbia officers were looking for him.

Garnett, whose address according to public records is his parents’ home in the upscale WildeWood neighborhood, was charged with reckless driving by a S.C. Highway Patrol trooper in Richland County. Court records indicate he pleaded guilty to that charge on Oct. 4 and paid a $355 fine.

Columbia police said the warrants for Garnett's arrest were entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database.

After being arrested by Columbia police for disorderly conduct after the Five Points fight on Oct. 21, Garnett was charged with intent to distribute hashish, synthetic marijuana and Xanax, Columbia police said.

Efforts to reach Matthew Garnett and Chuck Garnett, who has led the Columbia-based bank for 13 years, were not successful.