Four members of a Tanner family were sentenced up to 10 years in a federal penitentiary Tuesday, ending the reign of one of the most active drug operations in the area, according to Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely.

“Will Bryant Hines was sentenced to 10 years, Demetrius Hines was sentenced to 10 years, Keith Hines was sentenced to four years and Butch Draper, their cousin, was sentenced to six years,” said Blakely. “Bear in mind, these are federal sentences and they will serve at least 90 percent of the time.”

The sheriff said more indictments are expected in the case that stems from a three-year investigation and the July 2008 arrests of eight people who allegedly hauled an average of 2,500 pounds of Mexican marijuana a month into North Alabama.

Blakely said the Hines brothers are co-owners of Pine Ridge Trucking on Lindsay Road in Tanner and are believed to be the “major players” in the multi-state drug operation.

The arrests came after a raid on a home on Huntsville-Brownsferry Road and the seizure of a tractor-trailer truck loaded with approximately 1,800 pounds of high-grade marijuana concealed in hidden compartments. Blakely said authorities also seized $618,000 in U.S. currency.

Authorities developed leads and intelligence into an operation that branched into several states across the Southeast and requested the assistance of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Attorney about two years ago.

Blakely said the drug money laundering techniques included acquiring real property, assets, and expensive automobile transactions. The sheriff said the drug ring often employed methods of intimidation including threats, assaults, and even included fire-bombing automobiles.

The drug ring operated out of a closed auto shop on Benson Circle in Huntsville, which had been purchased by the Hines brothers.

Blakely said that the more than $600,000 in confiscated cash will be split between numerous law enforcement agencies who took part in the investigation. The sheriff said the $302,942 coming to his office would be spent on a computer-aided dispatching system and records management software.

“We’ve been needing that for a long time,” said Blakely. “We have 52 work stations, but our data has never been relational. In this system, we can press one button and get all the information on one person rather than making 15 to 20 queries.”

The sheriff said that there would be an auction conducted at his office on July 11 in which confiscated vehicles and other items seized in the raids will be sold.

“We expect quite a lot of revenue out of this and the feds are doing a forfeiture sale of a home in Houston Place that is valued at about $600,000 and was 97-percent complete when they seized it,” said Blakely. “We will get the biggest portion of the proceeds.”

The sheriff said the seized home belonged to Will Bryant Hines.

Other local agencies receiving portions of the seized money are: Limestone County District Attorney, $121,176 and Athens Police, $18,176. Others sharing in the seized funds include: Madison County Sheriff and district attorney; Morgan County Sheriff; City of Alabaster; Calhoun County Drug Task Force, and the Huntsville-Madison County drug team.