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Release [print-friendly version] The Arrest of Forty Defendants on Federal and State Warrants in Meridian, Mississippi OCT 01 -- As a result of investigative efforts, Agents and Officers from the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the East Mississippi Drug Task Force, the Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department, the Meridian Police Department, the United States Marshal Service, the Gulfport Residence Office and the Jackson District Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration executed fourteen federal arrest warrants and twenty-six state arrest warrants in Meridian, Mississippi on September 23, 2009. At the conclusion of these arrests, one federal defendant and five state defendants remain at large This investigation was a joint investigation lasting two and a half years by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the East Mississippi Drug Task Force and the DEA Jackson District Office (Group 51) into the drug trafficking activities of the Daniel ROBERT Organization from the Houston, Texas area to the Meridian, Mississippi area. This investigation incorporated the use of controlled purchases of narcotics, the debriefing and use of Confidential Sources, the utilization of electronic surveillance equipment, the use of Title III and Pen Registers, the utilization of traffic stops, the use of ground surveillance operations and coordination with the DEA Houston Field Division, the Houston, Texas Police Department, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, the Vidor, Texas Police Department and the Richland, Mississippi Police Department. A total of seventeen defendants have been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury in the Southern District of Mississippi with charges ranging from Conspiracy, Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, Possession with intent to distribute cocaine to Destruction of government property. To date, a total of approximately 9 kilograms of cocaine, 1,396.1 gross grams of crack cocaine, 3,267.6 gross grams of marijuana and $132,920 U.S. Currency has been purchased and/or seized in the investigation. |
