6 alleged gang members arrested in George County
Six people accused of being members or associates of the Black Gangster Disciple street gang were arrested on federal drug charges in Mississippi, and one in Washington early Thursday morning.
A release from the FBI said the suspects, who are all from George County, were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. They will appear before United States Magistrate Judge John C. Gargiulo on Friday in federal court.
The arrests are the result of a two-year investigation into methamphetamine trafficking in southeast Mississippi by federal, state and local agencies.
Those arrested in Mississippi are:
- Jerry Street, 35
- Garnett Edwin Smith, 38
- Alisha Christina Smith, 36
- Timothy Adam Havard, 40
- Mareo Green, 36
- Tarsen Deveal Fairley, 29
FBI agents also arrested one additional suspect in Vancouver, Washington:
- Zack Bexton, 30
READ: 3 Hattiesburg residents among 8 in drug trafficking indictment
The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is a Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area initiative, and receives funding from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C. It is made up of special agents from the FBI and law enforcement officers from the Pascagoula, Moss Point, Gautier and Ocean Springs police departments; the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics; and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department.
On Wednesday, in reference to the Senate Judiciary B Committee's failure to pass a bill that would enhance penalties for gang members, District Attorney Tony Lawrence, who covers George, Greene, and Jackson counties, said authorities on the coast "declared war" on gangs about a year and a half ago.
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Several high-profile cases around the state have involved gangs in recent memory, including the north Mississippi prosecution of 42 members of the Aryan Brotherhood on RICO charges including drugs, conspiracy and murder.
Josh Vallum, 28, a Latin King from George County, pleaded guilty to murder in the 2015 beating death of transgender 17-year-old Mercedes Williamson, of Theodore, Alabama, who once considered him a boyfriend.
In 2015, "Operation Bite Back," the deep investigation into the death of Jessica Chambers, a 19-year-old woman burned alive on Dec. 6, 2014, in Courtland, turned up 17 suspects accused of being involved in the Black Gangster Disciples, Vice Lords, and Sipp Mob street gangs. None of them was directly linked to her death, but Quinton Tellis, a member of the Insane Vice Lords gang, has been indicted for capital murder in her slaying and is awaiting trial.
Contact Therese Apel at 601-961-7236 or tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.