By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 24-year-old Alabaster man will spend the next eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty in late July to operating a “drug trafficking enterprise” in Shelby County.

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.

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

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.

Watts pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of a controlled substance during a July 22 hearing in front of Shelby County District Court Judge Dan Reeves. As a result of the guilty plea, Watts was sentenced to serve eight years in the Alabama Penitentiary.

Through a plea agreement, Watts’ other two current distribution of a controlled substance charges were dropped.