Drug bust in Jones County leads investigators to Atlanta

103 people have recently been arrested in Jones County for drug-related charges, and the sheriff’s office credits this accomplishment to a sting called “Operation Lone Ranger”.

News at six good evening.

Thanks for joining us for 41nbc news at 6.

I'm tucker sargent.

Our top story tonight at 6: a drug bust in jones county led to arrests all the way in atlanta.

41nbc's peyton lewis has more on what led investigators to finding thousands of dollars in weapons and drugs.

103 people have recently been arrested in jones county for drug-related charges.

The sheriff's office says it's all thanks to "operation lone ranger".

"you wanna get the head of the snake and i believe we cut off the head of the snake in this investigation.

We went from atlanta to macon to jones."

Investigators say they began working on a case in 2019 involving heroine and meth distribution in jones county.

Jones county invesigator crystal murphy helped start operation lone ranger, and says although the investigation took awhile, she's glad the hard work paid off.

"i mean if we had stopped here locally and just arrested those individuals there would be one to step in and fill that position."

Jones county sheriff butch reese believes the operation proved jones county has a drug problem, but more importantly, it allowed investigators to see a new issue on the rise.

"drugs are here.

And we're seeing one of the trends that's really disturbing.

More and more we're seeing people carrying weapons with these drugs and i'm talking about the users."

Barron hall is also an investigator with the jones county sheriff's office.

He says the team confiscated $100,000 in cash, several illegal guns, and multiple kilos of drugs.

"i'm just so happy to know that we took so many people off the street in this indictment and it's just a lot of hard work and it's amazing."

Investigators dedicated project to fallen captain jimmy black who passed away in december.

Sheriff reese says operation lone ranger was a nod at captain black and his the sheriff's office encourages anyone facing addiction to