35 CHARGED IN UNDERCOVER DRUG INVESTIGATION

Guyton Officials Question Pre-election Timing Of Sweeping Arrests

Guyton Mayor C.D. Dean says he's thankful that Effingham County deputies
began serving arrest warrants on 35 people Monday for an assortment of drug
charges.

But he said the timing -- just a little more than a month before an
election -- makes him wonder.

"Anytime you get drug dealers off the street, that's good news for
everybody. We're very happy that these arrests are happening," Dean said.
"It's not lost on anybody that they are happening just one month before the
election. We just hope that this level of law enforcement activity will
continue after November."

Sheriff Jay Space, who is facing opposition from one-time colleague Jimmy
McDuffie Nov. 7, said the natural course of a 10-month investigation and
not politics determined when the arrests happened.

Space denied that the arrests were politically motivated.

"It's got absolutely nothing to do with that. Nothing whatsoever," he said.

The sheriff's department has an on-going drug investigation, with sweeps
like this one usually happening every four to six months, he said.

Most of the drug busts happened in the Guyton and Marlow communities, along
with the area along Standard Lane in Springfield, Space said.

Undercover drug probes like this one generally last four to six months,
until undercover agents and informants begin encountering repeat customers.

But this one lasted 10 months, Space said, because that's how long new drug
sellers kept cropping up.

Another similar drug investigation has already begun, Space said. "It's a
never-ending thing," he said, adding that another round of arrests could be
expected early next year.

Space -- sharply criticized by Guyton residents, many of whom say they've
seen open-air drug sales on the city's streets -- has long said that
investigations were under way.

This week's arrests were the culmination of that effort, he said.

"These arrests will reduce the drug activity that makes the residents feel
so uncomfortable, especially in the Guyton area because it was so
out-in-the-open and visible to the common citizen," Space said.

The drug problem was just as bad in Marlow. But there were fewer citizens'
complaints because that area is less visible, he said.

Law officers began knocking on doors at about 4:30 a.m. Monday.

Thirty arrests -- mainly for cocaine and marijuana sales, along with a
smattering of LSD -- had been made by Tuesday afternoon.

At one point, an entire cell block was set aside in the Effingham County
Jail to handle the processing.

"We're going to have a full house for awhile. That's not to say we won't
have room for some more," Space said.

Guyton Council member Karen Cantaline said she was glad to hear of the arrests.

"If it's going to take those guys off the street corner dealing crack
cocaine, then more power to them," Cantaline said. "But it's an election
year, and you just can't help but wonder."

The arrests followed on the heels of 51 other "spinoff arrests" that
deputies made while the investigation was happening, Space said.