Drug round-up sweeps through Mount Olive
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on December 2, 2016 7:57 AM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Eric McCallop is lead by the arm by Patrolman Jose Trinidad to be processed at the Mount Olive Police Department Thursday. A mobile magistrates office was set up behind the police department for convenience as several law enforcement agencies assisted in the roundup of people with outstanding warrants.
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Major Linda Tyson guides Kevin Winn Sr. around a vehicle as she takes him to the mobile magistrates office set up behind the Mount Olive Police Department Thursday.
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Police Chief Tommy Brown walks with Sharon Vann to the magistrate in a mobile office behind the Mount Olive Police Department Thursday afternoon. Law enforcement officers from several departments assisted the Mount Olive Police in a roundup of people with outstanding warrants.
Local law enforcement agencies joined forces in Mount Olive for a sweep of alleged drug dealers Thursday, resulting in 20 arrests.
Wayne and Duplin County Sheriff's Office SWAT Teams; Goldsboro, Mount Olive and Warsaw Police Departments; and Wayne and Duplin County probation used warrants to arrest people who police say sold drugs to undercover officers.
With cuffed wrists and ankles, 19 men and one woman held their heads down as officers escorted them one at a time from the municipal court house to the mobile magistrate office in the back parking lot of the town's police department.
Mount Olive Police Chief Tommy Brown said the 6 to 8-month investigation -- dubbed Operation Encore -- produced warrants on 38 people in the city limits, but he said word traveled quickly about the arrests after the operation began at 1:30 p.m.
Not all of the suspects were located.
Brown said his officers will enter the names and information of the 18 people not arrested Friday into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer index to identify them the next time they encounter law enforcement, and certainly if they sell drugs to an undercover officer in the future.
Law enforcement is concerned for the safety of innocent people who live in the neighborhoods where drugs are sold, and Brown said more operations will come if needed.
"It's the law abiding citizens out there that has to deal with the aftermath, and they shouldn't have to," Brown said.
"We want to send the message out that we're not going to stand for it. If you're going to do it in Mount Olive, we're going to continue to do these kind of operations."