U.S. Attorney Scott LearyOXFORD – Federal prosecutors say a months-long undercover operation targeting drug dealers and illegal machine guns in Tupelo and the Mississippi Delta has led to federal charges against 14 people.
U.S. Attorney Scott Leary of the Northern District of Mississippi announced the results alongside ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson of the New Orleans Field Division and Homeland Security Investigations Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matt Reidell.
The arrests came out of three Homeland Security Task Force investigations: Operation King’s Conversion, Operation Delta Fury and Operation Real Deal. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, two of the cases targeted drug trafficking organizations operating in North Mississippi, and the third focused on the importation and distribution of Glock-type conversion devices, which turn a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic weapon.
“Every time a violent crime is committed, a life is potentially lost, a family is destroyed, a community is damaged,” Leary said.
Those charged are:
- Joshua Alexander, 30, Greenville – drug distribution
- Craig Baker, 60, Tupelo – drug distribution
- Trevion Bernard, 20, Leland – possession of a machine gun
- Jackie Brunson, 54, Tupelo – drug distribution
- Kabriyen Clark, 23, Tupelo – illegal possession of a machine gun
- Lucas Davis, 43, Greenville – drug distribution
- Otheno English, 42, Tupelo – drug distribution
- George Jefferson, 43, Greenville – drug distribution
- Raymond Long, 52, Tupelo – drug distribution
- Floyd Milton, 41, Greenville – drug distribution
- La’Jayvion Moy, 21, Greenville – carjacking and felon in possession of a firearm
- Rana Owens, 44, Tupelo – drug distribution
- Marquez Palmer, 38, Greenville – drug distribution
- Dajuante Rancifer, 34, Greenville – drug distribution
Jackson said ATF used crime gun intelligence, including firearms tracing and NIBIN ballistics data, to pinpoint shooting hot spots in Tupelo and Greenville before agents moved in. The work was done largely through undercover buys, he said, between 37 and 45 of them, each running $500 to $1,500 for two to four ounces of methamphetamine or fentanyl. Agents also bought firearms.
“Fentanyl is the number one narcotic that is killing our family members on the streets,” Jackson said.
The case is a spinoff of an earlier ATF operation that ran from November 2025 through February 2026 and ended with the arrests of about 13 or 14 defendants, Jackson said. The second phase became a Homeland Security Task Force investigation, and the takedown came in late September.
Every gun recovered has been run through NIBIN, Jackson said, and any links to other shootings will be passed along to the departments investigating them.
Reidell said the HSTF, created under Executive Order 14159, is a permanent, government-wide effort aimed at cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
“Criminal organizations do not respect jurisdictional boundaries, and neither will our response,” he said.
Asked whether the case reaches beyond Mississippi, Leary said drug cases always do, since very little methamphetamine or cocaine is produced in the state. This investigation was deliberately focused on street-level violence, he said, while other resources follow supply chains out of state and across the border. Jackson said information developed from these arrests is expected to lead to investigations in other states and back to trafficking organizations in Mexico.
Officials stopped short of tying the arrests to any one street gang. Asked whether investigators had looked at the connection between the cartels at one end of the drug supply and the street gangs at the other, Leary said it was “probably premature for us to delve into where the investigation is going.”
He did say earlier that much of the violent crime his office sees is driven by overseas cartels, with drugs as the common thread. The task force behind the case was created specifically to go after cartels, foreign gangs and transnational criminal organizations.
Leary acknowledged that crime drops after roundups like this one don’t last forever, but said the goal is to be a catalyst for sustained reductions in the communities that need help most. He declined to discuss any links between cartels and local street gangs, calling it premature.
Jackson, who worked undercover early in his career in Los Angeles, said ATF agents in his three-state division have been shot, assaulted and robbed at gunpoint during undercover operations by suspects who had no idea they were dealing with federal agents.
“The public is not going to see us doing these operations,” he said. “But the community is going to feel the impact when violent crime is driven down.”
In addition to ATF and HSI, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the North Mississippi Narcotics Unit, the Greenville Police Department and the Tupelo Police Department assisted in the investigations. The HSTF in Jackson also includes the FBI, DEA, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (including its Office of Field Operations, U.S. Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations), the Coast Guard Investigative Service, IRS Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chad Doleac, John Herzog, Clyde McGee, Sam Stringfellow and Feleica Wilson are prosecuting the cases.
All defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
