More than 250 people, including gang members, sex offenders and murder suspects, have been arrested in North Mississippi, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The arrests were a result of Operation Triple Beam, a month-long initiative that brought together federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in 13 counties to identify and arrest violent fugitives and targeted gang activity in the northern part of the state.
Charges against the 255 people arrested included homicide, assault, robbery, arson, drug distribution, illegal gun crimes and failure to register as a
sex offender.
About 150 gang members were arrested or validated by law enforcement, In addition, almost 200 registered sex offenders living in areas of Northeast Mississippi were checked for compliance with sex offender registration requirements. Compliance checks were also conducted on another 150 moderate and high-risk federal and state probationers.
“Again and again, law enforcement in North Mississippi has given the rest of this nation an example of what we can accomplish when we bring together the resources and expertise of our federal officers with the street level intelligence of our state and local partners,” U.S. Attorney Genral Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “The arrest of more than 250 defendants—including multiple sex offenders—as part of Operation Triple Beam builds on the hundreds of arrests that
our Deputy Marshals in North Mississippi have helped make over the last year in operations like this one.”