By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 24-year-old Alabaster man is being held in the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $300,000 after he allegedly ran a “drug trafficking enterprise” in Shelby County, according to the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office.

The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested Caleb Alexander Watts, who lists an address in the Peavine Trailer Park in Alabaster, on June 8 and charged him with three felony counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance.

According to Watts’ arrest warrants, he allegedly distributed marijuana on Gilmore Creek Circle in Montevallo on Feb. 24, and allegedly distributed marijuana on Allen Drive in Alabaster on Feb. 26 and March 4.

According to Circuit Court records, Watts pleaded guilty to three counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance in August 2013, and has a previous conviction on a first-degree attempted assault charge.

In a bond recommendation filed with Watts’ arrest warrants, the District Attorney’s Office wrote Watts’ current charges “Stem from an ongoing drug trafficking enterprise that has been under investigation since January 2015.”

“(The) defendant is a danger to himself and to the public at large, and poses a risk of flight,” read the bond recommendation.

Watts is scheduled to appear in Shelby County Circuit Court at 8:30 a.m. on July 9 for a preliminary hearing.