A major operation in Mississippi County leads to the arrests of 70 defendants in 40 separate indictments. United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas Christopher Thyer made the announcement in a press conference in Blytheville, along with David Resch of the FBI and 2nd Judicial District Prosecutor Scott Ellington. Dubbed Operation Blynd Justice, the two year operation targeting increased drug and gun crime in Mississippi County. Early Tuesday morning, almost 600 law enforcement officers executed arrest warrants. According to a news release, of the 70, twenty are fugitives and most of the defendants are reportedly in Blytheville. Over a period of a year and a half, Thyer alleges that more than 160 controlled purchases of drugs and/or firearms took place, resulting in the purchasing of more than 19 pounds of methamphetamine and 89 illegally possessed firearms. More than 10 ounces of crack cocaine was purchased in the investigation. The defendants face numerous indictments and will be arraigned in federal court in Little Rock Thursday morning. KASU news will have comments from Christopher Thyer forthcoming.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.