Law Enforcement Raids And The Results That Follow

CHICKASAW and MONROE COUNTIES, Miss. (WCBI) – Dozens of arrests are made and thousands of dollars worth of drugs, and guns were seized in a federal raid called, Operation Triple Beam.

It played out across several counties in northeast Mississippi over the last few weeks.

We first reported on the U.S. Attorney’s Office and U.S. Marshal led take down on Wednesday.

Wednesday, we found out the reasons and goals behind these multi-agency operations and the results they bring.

Sending a message, tackling crime and protecting the public.

That’s why law enforcement do these operations.

When you put federal, state, and local agencies together, you get big results.

And that’s exactly what came out of Operation Triple Beam.

“When you can have 30 police officers at one time saturate an area, it just it makes a big showing and I mean, it helped arrest a lot of folks that we’ve been looking for and then during this time too, we checked all of our sex offenders, which was a real big a real big thing,” says Chickasaw County Sheriff James Meyers.

Chickasaw County was one of the agencies joining the operation.

Sheriff Meyers says when you do these, you prioritize the suspects you’re after.

“A big percent of those that we arrested were gang members, so you know, we hate to think about having gang problems. We don’t have a major gang problem, as far as like, you see other places, but we do have a certain percentage of folks that we deal with that are members of a gang, so its it makes it a little different.”

Something else that’s different after these raids, the amount of crime.

“After the operation was over with, our undercover agents and informants, you know, we’re out still trying to buy narcotics and it was kind of like, you know, it was hard to find somebody that wanted to sell, but it’s like anything else, you know, it seems like whenever you do arrest someone say for selling narcotics, there is somebody else that will try to take there place.”

But just like anything else, Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says it’s only a matter of time before the cycle starts over.

That’s why it pays to stay on top of things at all times.

“When you first do these things, it’s fresh on people’s minds, especially the criminal, but you know, he’ll get comfortable again, so what you have to do, you have to be very consistent. You have to be consistent to go back out and talk to these people if they’re committing more crimes, then do what you’ve got to do.”

Both sheriffs say when you have these results, it shows the public how different agencies work together for a common goal and also shows they’re doing their jobs.