Although District Attorney Bell described Rick Patterson as Jackson County’s kingpin dealer, Patterson’s incarceration has apparently done little to curb Edna’s drug problem – at least officially. On Sunday, Oct. 9, Edna police arrested 13 more people in connection with another undercover drug sting, this one code-named “Operation Shutdown.” Bell has so far indicted 25 people – most of them African-Americans – in connection with the new sting, including several who only recently completed prison sentences as a consequence of Operation Crackdown. At press time, details of the Shutdown sting were still unknown, although Jackson Co. sources say the charges are based on the work of yet another confidential police informant.

This article appears in October 21 • 2005.

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