Jeffrey Campaigne was sentenced Monday to serve 14 years in federal prison for his part in a Chattanooga meth ring.
Prosecutor Chris Poole said Campaigne could have been facing a life sentence had the government fully charged him.
Campaigne had been given a 20-year suspended sentence in Whitfield County in 2011 on a meth charge.
Prosecutor Poole said the case was unusual in that Campaigne confessed to agents prior to his being charged that he was involved in the meth conspiracy. Then he went back to dealing drugs, the prosecutor said.
He said, "I have known some people who have admitted their guilt, and they never saw the inside of a courtroom."
His attorney, Mitch Carter, said Campaigne is an addict.
Agents said it was Sept. 4, 2014, when Campaigne voluntarily came to the DEA and confessed to dealing meth. He said since January of 2014, he was getting two kilograms of meth every two weeks from his source in Atlanta, which he then sold. He said his biggest customer (who was also arrested) was in Chattanooga.
On Oct. 14, agents learned that Campaigne was supplying another man with two ounces of meth. Law enforcement arrested him as he returned from Campaigne's house. The customer had two ounces of meth on him.
A search of the Campaigne residence turned up over 200 grams of meth and drug paraphernalia.