It was a bad day to be part of the Columbus illegal narcotics scene Monday, as the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office Special Tactics Investigative Narcotics Group arrested 18 suspects in a series of raids beginning that morning.
Lowndes County Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said the arrests were the culmination of an eight-month investigation in cooperation with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Mississippi Department of Corrections.
“We started right at 7:45 Monday morning so that all the school buses would have run,” Hawkins said.
The investigation began after a series of complaints about suspicious activity, he said.
“We got multiple calls and began to investigate,” he said. “Most of the arrests were inside the city limits, because everybody mostly congregates in the city. What started as simple calls about suspicious activity ended with many dangerous drugs off the streets and 18 drug dealers behind bars.”
Hawkins said the majority of the busts were for methamphetamine.
“It’s the predominant drug of choice,” he said. “Most of it is coming in from outside the area, but since the law changed (to allow pseudoephedrine to be bought over the counter) we have seen two labs crop up in Lowndes County.”
The arrests included a charge for dealing heroin, which Hawkins said is becoming more common.
“Ten years ago it was pretty unheard of,” he said. “But it’s not unusual anymore. When the law changed and limited prescriptions for opioids, people started using heroin to support their habit. A lot of the fatal overdoses we’re seeing are because (heroin) is laced with fentanyl.”
Those arrested Monday were: Cameyer S. Anderson, charged with one count of sale of methamphetamine; Michael Ash, charged with one count possession of cocaine; Rodney Boles, charged with one count possession of meth; Sonya I. Porter-Ellis, charged with one count possession of marijuana; Eric Green, charged with one count sale of methamphetamine; David Lash Hairston, charged with one count possession of cocaine; Quincy Holliness, charged with three counts sale of methamphetamine; Carlos Humphries, charged with one count of sale of a controlled substance; Arthur Jefferson, charged with one count sale of methamphetamine; Deborah Johnston, charged with four counts sale of methamphetamine; Patrick Neely, charged with one count sale of marijuana; Brandi E. Nichols, charged with five counts sale of methamphetamine; Daphne Reedwood, charged with one count sale of methamphetamine; Eddie B. Roberts, charged with three counts sale of methamphetamine; Eugene Robinson Jr., charged with one count sale of methamphetamine; Jeremiah Stokes, charged with two counts sale of heroin and one count sale of cocaine; Barbara Tenney, charged with three counts sale of methamphetamine; and Willie Mason, charged with one count possession of methamphetamine.
Hawkins said more arrests are expected.
“A few more may come and turn themselves in,” he said.
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