Video: A Big Monroe County Drug Bust

MONROE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – A large scale drug roundup lands dozens behind bars in Monroe County.

It’s the result of months of undercover work by investigators with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department Narcotics Division.

It’s an effort to clean up the county. Law enforcement prepared 70 warrants and 90% of those are in Aberdeen.

Handcuffs being slapped on left and right, is why Sheriff Cecil Cantrell says it’s a great is day in Monroe County.

“I don’t have a numbers count, but I’m going to say over thirty. We’re probably looking for another forty, and we picked up people last night, and yesterday, and this morning. We had sixteen already locked up, besides what we’ve picked up today, so it’s a growing number.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics and the U.S. Marshals assisted the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department with the successful roundup.

“We’ve got four different teams throughout the county picking folks up. We’re going to regroup, look who we have got, and then we’re going to go back this afternoon and see if we can pick up some more people. This is going to be an ongoing process,” says Cantrell.

These suspects are accused of selling and using illegal drugs, but some beg to differ.

“These are just not low level criminals. These people are selling drugs, and selling a lot of drugs, and they’re selling crack, cocaine, heroin, you name it, pills, ecstasy. If it’s out there, they’re selling everything that they can get their hands on.”

Sheriff Cantrell has made it well known that he’s not going to tolerate drugs in the county, which might be why this accused drug user denies he uses them.

The bust sends a zero tolerance message to drug abusers in Monroe County.

“It’s just a bad situation, you know, a lot of these people just think they can sell drugs, and there’s no consequences to it, but there’s consequences when you sell drugs in our county, and we’re putting a stop to it.”