Muscogee County Sheriff’s sting disrupts operations of Zohannon and Crips criminal street gangs

COLUMBUS, Ga. ( WRBL ) — Last week, the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, DEA and other local law enforcement partners targeted two Columbus Criminal Street gangs suspected of trafficking in illegal drugs.

The sting resulted in more than 100 arrests – 31 here in Columbus. Today, those criminal enterprises are dealing with the fallout of the arrests and pressure on their organizations.

Cure Violence has been working with gangs and gang members for about two years. Reggie Lewis and Christopher Brown talked exclusively with WRBL this afternoon about what last week’s arrests mean.

Sheriff Greg Countryman announced the arrests last week.

Make no mistake, the Zohannon and Crips criminal street gangs were reeling from the law enforcement attention.

“I think Sheriff Countrymen sent a strong message that they’re not playing,” Lewis said. “You know, we’ve had some challenges over the last couple of years with the number of law enforcement resources we had in our community.  And for him to show this level of force  shows that he means business,  but also shows that he has the support  of our leaders  to go out and effect change in these communities by addressing some of this criminal activity.”

The arrests will be disruptive to the gangs because many of those taken into custody were in key leadership positions.

“It definitely disrupted the activity,” Lewis said. “It took some strong people out of  leadership and some of these gangs.  But it also, as Chris was talking about,  kind of changed the mindset of how these guys are moving.”

Of the 31 people arrested in Columbus, 19 face federal charges and 12 were charged in Superior Court.

The operation spread from Columbus to California targeting cartels and local dealers. Drugs, guns and cash totaling a staggering $280 million were confiscated.

“We knew that Muscogee County Sheriff Greg Countryman is really is about keeping this city safe,” Lewis said. “And so we had a feeling that this was coming.”

Brown said there is also colleterial damage.

“I agree with Reggie.  And also in that something else I’ve seen is going to  have a huge effect on our community is  we still have  a lot of young kids  who are going to be victims as well because a lot of them lost parents through the operation,” Brown said. “But it was  needed because of the safety of the city. We did need to slow down some of the violence coming from the drugs and the gangs.”

Brown fears now that there will be an internal struggle for control of the gangs that could make Columbus less safe in the short-term.

“It’s almost like  it’s kind of more dangerous right now  because  you have a lot of guys that were on that  mid level  and you may have guys fighting  to get to that leadership,” Brown said. “So there’s no telling who was willing to  cross the other one out to get there.  A lot of times, even though it is bad,  you have their leader who may tell them, go do this or don’t go do this. Right now,  people just free will. It’s like,  you know, whatever we need to do, somebody’s got to step up and prove their leader.”

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