On Tuesday, Oct. 11,2022, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and the 18th Judicial W DTF, assisted by the DEA and Mena Police Department arrested three Polk County residents on federal warrants related to narcotics trafficking. Operation Snowbird was an 18-month narcotics trafficking investigation that led to the arrests of over 30 individuals on various narcotic related charges.
Arrested on federal warrants on Tuesday were Patricia Jackson (age 54) of Mena, Stephanie Nash (age 29) of Mena, and Cody Dees (age 37) of Mena. All three suspects were transported to Sebastian County Detention Center to await arraignment in Federal Court.
Three other suspects from Polk County, Justin Dees (age 35), Richard C. Erickson (age 46), and Cheyenne N. Smith (age 28) were also indicted federally as part of “Operation Snowbird.” All three were currently incarcerated for State charges and were transported to Sebastian County to be arraigned on the federal charges.
Sheriff Scott Sawyer stated “Operation Snowbird” started out as a small methamphetamines sales case and ballooned into large scale, multi-state narcotic trafficking investigation that took over 18 months to wrap up. We arrested over 30 individuals, seized a large amount of methamphetamines and other narcotics, cash, vehicles, and recovered stolen property. The men and women of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and 18th Judicial W DTF spent hundreds of hours on this case. They did an outstanding job and I’m really proud of them, but we’ve got more work to do and more arrests to make”.
The above charges are allegations only. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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