Lowndes County Narcotics STING Unit conducts round-up of drug violators

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – It’s been a busy day for the Lowndes County Narcotics STING Unit and several other law enforcement agencies.

They hit the roads of Lowndes County with Operation Rolling Thunder and a list of 28 targets.

So far they’ve managed to bring in many of those they were looking for.

After a quick rundown of the task ahead, the operation was set in motion

The agencies split up into three separate teams.

Sheriff Eddie Hawkins and our WCBI reporter were a part of team one.

About an hour and a half into the operation, our team made two arrests at the Plaza Hotel.

“It’s like the price of doing business. It’s like an overhead, you know they expect us to come and arrest them at some point they just don’t know when it’s going to happen,” said Hawkins.

Hawkins said it can take several months to build up cases on suspects.

After they’ve developed the case and gotten a warrant, then they can set things in motion to bring them in.

Round-up operations like this one allow the teams to strike several locations at one time, hopefully, before suspects can alert one another.

The STING unit was able to make another arrest in a nearby neighborhood that is known to be a popular spot for drug violators.

“The drugs fuel the other crime in our community. We see it all the time. All of our property crime all of our violence is someway, somehow always associated with the drug offenses that are being committed in the community,” said Hawkins.

Back at the Sheriff’s Office, jailers were busy processing the day’s arrests.

Because of the expected amount of people being brought in, the department set up a system to speed that up.

“We set up a processing station here in this room so we can bring them in the front door, book them in, bring all of our paperwork and processing here before they go back into the jail,” said Hawkins.

The Unit was able to make arrests in several parts of Lowndes County and even one in the Lousiville area.

At this time, 17 people were arrested during the operation.

For 24/7 news and updates, follow us on Facebook and Twitter