The Lafayette County Metro Narcotics Unit, a multi-jurisdictional drug-related task force, issued 47 arrest warrants between Wednesday, Feb. 21, and Friday, Feb. 23. The warrants were issued for drug violations and other felony crimes. At least three University of Mississippi students were among the 47.
Additionally, 22 individuals have outstanding warrants in connection to last week’s sweep.
During the arrests, officers seized $23,000, five guns, 2 ounces of cocaine, 613 grams of marijuana, 17 THC cartridges, 14 bottles of Promethazine syrup and 25 doses of fentanyl.
“All of our buys totaled around 1,000 dosage units of fentanyl. We purchased about 1,000 pills from all of the violators,” Alex Sauver, commander of Metro Narcotics, said.
Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that has driven the rise of addiction and opioid-related deaths throughout the country in the past few years. Sauver urged the public to, as always: “Be careful and wary when buying and taking illicit drugs,” he said.
Metro Narcotics is known for using confidential informants. Sauver confirmed that such informants were engaged by the department to purchase drugs from suspects in the investigations that preceded the arrests.
According to public records, two students are accused of selling THC and one student is accused of selling Adderall to the Metro Narcotics Unit on eight different occasions in October and November 2023. Collectively, the students are facing 11 felony drug counts for the sale and possession of illicit drugs.
Part of the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office, Lafayette County Metro Narcotics operates in conjunction with the University of Mississippi Police Department and the Oxford Police Department. Last week’s arrests were performed with assistance from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Mississippi Department of Corrections, Yalobusha County Sheriff’s Department, Panola County Sheriff’s Department, Marshall County Sheriff’s Department and the Tupelo Police Department.
