Only three months after he’d been released from prison, area drug task force agents began hearing a Kingston man was back in business.

But they weren’t hearing stories of a reformed criminal. Barry Bagwell was selling significant quantities of methamphetamine and firearms, according to court filings.

Through the use of an informant, Bartow County drug task force agents made a number of purchases of meth and firearms, including a Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifle, from Bagwell in the Floyd County area, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Jones.

At the last scheduled buy before authorities raided his home, Bagwell sold the undercover informant a .22 caliber Pietta rifle equipped with a silencer which he referred to as a “good hit man gun,” Jones said.

On December 2, 2008, authorities raided Bagwell’s home on Sam Harris Road, but Bagwell was nowhere to be found. Bagwell fled and spent the next 90 days hiding out in homes and allegedly selling meth all across Northwest Georgia.

The break came in February 2009 when another informant stepped forward and said they knew how to get in touch with the fugitive and would set up a buy at Ralston’s Corner store near Sonoraville.

He was taken into custody and Jones told the court several ounces of meth were found on Bagwell's person and in his vehicle.

Several days afterward Bagwell appeared before a federal judge, who denied bail in the case.

Now a year later, the 51 year-old Bagwell pleaded guilty in Rome’s federal court on Monday to possession with intent to distribute at least 500 grams of methamphetamine.

After the AUSA finished presenting to the court what the government felt it could prove if the case went to trial, Judge Robert L. Vining Jr. asked a final question.

“Is that pretty much what happened, Mr. Bagwell?”

“Yes, sir,” Bagwell replied.

The government has recommended Bagwell serve 20 years in prison as a part of the plea deal.

He is scheduled to be sentenced in May 13 at 10:30 a.m.