ROSEDALE LINKED TO DRUGS

"It's amazing how a little town like Rosedale can be connected to a place
like Nantucket," said Detective Jerry Mack, of the Nantucket Police
Department in an article about drug trafficking in The Inquirer and Mirror,
a newspaper in Nantucket, Mass.

Anthony Gibson, the director of the Rosedale Police Department, said he
found out that the article had been published after one of his officers
brought him a copy he had printed from the Internet. The officer discovered
the article after high school students in Rosedale were passing around
their own copies at West Bolivar High School.

The article said since May 2000, the Nantucket Police Department has
investigated 35 separate individuals from Rosedale for suspected
crack-cocaine dealing in the wealthy Massachusetts island of 10,000.

It also explained that the local police said the "Rosedale connection"
accounted for nearly all of the crack dealing on the island, and
investigations of people from Rosedale and surrounding Mississippi towns
made up 70 percent of the total drug investigations by the Nantucket Police
Department.

The Bolivar Commercial made numerous calls to the Nantucket Police
Department, but was unable to talk with a detective. A police records
clerk, however, confirmed the names of four Rosedale residents who had been
arrested.

"Drugs are in just about every city in America," Gibson said. "Not just
Rosedale."

Gibson, who spoke to a reporter from the Nantucket paper about three weeks
ago, also said he was misquoted in the article. The article quoted Gibson
as saying he was aware of the problem and is taking steps to stop the flow
of crack dealers leaving Rosedale from Nantucket.

"They leave here looking poor and come back with a lot of money and nice
cars," Gibson was quoted in the article. "We have busted some of them and
we're investigating a lot of them, but it's something that has been
happening for years. I haven't figured out why Nantucket gets a lot of
these guys. There's someone up there they're connected with."

Gibson said Thursday afternoon that he never told (;I);The Inquirer and
Mirror (;I);the drugs were coming from Rosedale.

"I don't know that they are selling drugs in Nantucket," he explained. "I
have heard that, but I don't know it for sure.

"I just feel like Rosedale is like every other place - we're not getting
assistance here like other communities in Bolivar County," he added.
"Agencies like the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics come in twice a year to
deal with a few suspects, but they are in and out in a few hours.

"An investigation needs to happen. Crack and meth are just all over,"
Gibson said. "We need more street investigations more often, not just once
in a while."

A Nantucket detective said that Rosedale "is where the stuff is coming
from, it's all from that area."

"I've never been to Nantucket, but geographically speaking, I'm sure they
get drugs from all over, just like we do," said Joe Smith, a narcotics
investigator with the Bolivar County Sheriff's Department. "Cocaine is made
in South America, and the drug works its way up north. The price goes up
the farther north it goes."

The price goes up since there is more risk of getting caught and going to
jail, especially as far as Nantucket is from Rosedale. A gram of crack
costs $20 in Bolivar County, but in Nantucket the price could at least
double, according to Smith.

"We have gotten information that people are traveling from Rosedale to
Nantucket selling drugs," he added."We have also arrested several of the
same people for drugs from Rosedale that Nantucket Police Department has,
so there's definitely a connection there, and has been for at least two years."

"I hate that this type of publicity that puts all of Mississippi in a bad
light, when it's not Rosedale, the town (or) the community itself, but a
few people who lived there and have been caught for drugs in Nantucket," he
finished.

On Monday, Eric A. Griffin, 31, of Rosedale, was indicted by a Nantucket
County grand jury on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to
distribute in a school zone, according to the article.

Griffin, along with James E. Johnson Jr., 40, was nabbed during a raid on
Aug. 2, 2003. The raid allegedly resulted in the seizure of 14 "rocks" of
crack cocaine with a street value of $1,400, along with crack pipes,
plastic bags and $5,000 in cash.

After police busted down the door of the house, Griffin allegedly fled the
property on foot and ran about 100 yards before police caught him. After
the raid, Det. Adams said Griffin was "the main supplier for the island for
crack cocaine," according to the article.

Griffin later missed a January court appearance because he was shot in
Mississippi during an alleged drug transaction.

Most recently, a Jan. 5 raid netted six rocks of crack with a street value
of around $600, a small amount of marijuana, $890 in cash and plastic bags,
scales, crack pipes, small butane torches and other drug paraphernalia.
Three people, including Charles Banks, 24, of Rosedale, were arrested
during the raid.

According to The Inquirer and Mirror, Police believe Banks was one of the
major players in the island's cocaine trade prior to the raid, filling the
void created by Griffin's arrest. Although he was initially charged with
possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, the charges were reduced
to possession of cocaine after Banks agreed to serve 90 days in the
Barnstable House of Corrections.

In another recent case against a Rosedale suspect, charges of possession of
cocaine with intent to distribute against Jeremy Starks, 23, were dismissed
last week when Judge W. James O'Neill threw out the charges against him
after ruling police had conducted an illegal search of his car.

On Feb. 24, officers stopped Starks in a red Mercury Tracer after he left
what police called a "known drug house" on Atlantic Avenue. Although a
search of the vehicle revealed 11 baggies of powdered cocaine and one bag
of crack, as well as $1,100 in cash, Judge O'Neill ruled the police did not
have probable cause to make the stop in the first place, according to the
article.

Investigator Charles "Buster" Bingham would not comment on the situation or
any investigation concerning Rosedale or Nantucket.