COCKE COUNTY, Tenn. — The Cocke County Sheriff's Office said it conducted an undercover operation leading to drug charges for a total of 25 people on Friday.
It said it was called "Operation Friday the 13th" and it resulted in a total of 14 charges for crimes related to fentanyl, 11 charges for ones related to heroin, three charges for crimes related to cocaine and 21 for ones related to methamphetamine. There were also nine counts for the sale and delivery of a controlled substance.
It said 11 people were in custody and served with indictments on Friday, out of the 25 people facing charges. A list of people indicted due to the operation is available below.
- Dalton Fox, 29
- Eric Ballard, 56
- Gary Cody, 45
- Crystal VanDaley, 43
- Joseph Todd Turner, 45
- Roger Dale Sigler, 62
- Derrick Stanley Neely, 27
- Donald Edward McCoy, 56
- Bobby Ray Lewis, 32
- Meghann Hill, 44
- Allison Hild-Daniels, 45
CCSO said some indictments were not served because there were changes of address, or the person could not be found. It said it would continue trying to find the people indicted and release their identities when they are in custody.
On Jan. 18, they said they were still looking for 13 people facing drug charges.
Sheriff CJ Ball said that the arrests were the result of more than a year of work, and the operation was also conducted by a new narcotics task force.
"That's what we are trying to do here, is trying to build a format to let them know we're not going to have it and we're going to try to take care of that, the best we can here," he said.
He said Cocke County is seeing an increase in overdose deaths.
"Their families are victims of what's taking place, and we want to try to get the ones responsible for these cases and get them behind bars," he said.
It said it worked on the operation alongside the Newport Police Department, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
"I've lost so many friends, family, all kinds of stuff in the last year or two. It's crazy, the numbers," said Joey Barrett in Cocke County. "What if I had sold somebody something and they had died from it? You know, that weighs on me heavily a lot of the time. That's one of the main reasons that I am just done with it."
He said he was arrested several times for buying and selling drugs. He's not a part of the county's Jail Addiction Chemical Addiction Program and said he has been drug-free for more than a year.
"You can't just throw somebody out on the streets thinking, 'Oh, they're good. Send them on,' because they still have that jail mentality," he said.