If you won $3,000,000 on a scratchcard you might be tempted to make an investment or two, but you’d want to make sure those investments were sound. When Ronnie Music Jr of Waycross, Georgia won $3,000,000 he decided to invest that win in a large methamphetamine operation, a decision he may now be regretting after a court sentenced him to 21 years on Monday for his part in the drugs ring.
The felon won the scratch off back in February 2015 and said he was going to save the cash. Instead he invested it in crystal meth, moving from small time drug dealer to lynchpin. Later in 2015 Music was caught trying to sell 11 pounds of crystal meth, worth more than half a million dollars in a drug’s bust. Ronnie Music Jr was named as the supplier and arrested in Tennessee, investigators seized more than $1,000,000 worth of crystal meth, firearms, ammunition and more than $600,000 in cash.
Unsurprisingly, US attorney Ed Traver called the investment ‘unsound’, and that might be the understatement of the century. Music had no choice but to plead guilty in the case.
Music has a fairly long record, first arrested in 2009 for running a meth lab, he also has firearms charges and has previously served three years in prison. Even taking this into account, you might think a $3,000,000 win might be enough to help Music straighten out his life and make some legal investments, but instead he faces the next 21 years in jail, with little chance to spend his winnings.
We often hear of lottery winners making poor investments, but none quite so bad as this one.