Operation Southern Shield Nets Drug Arrests in Toccoa

Toccoa Police Chief Jimmy Mize is calling this month’s Operation Southern Shield a success with 11 arrests inside the City limits.

Operation Southern Shield was a five-state summer initiative that ran the week of July 15 and was primarily designed to catch speeders and reduce the number of traffic fatalities.

But Mize says he used the opportunity to turn it into a mulit-agency initiative.

“What we did was we included the Applachain Regional Drug Enforcement Office, the North Georgia Major Offender Task Force from the FBI, and we also had the Georgia Department of Corrections who provided K-9 units for us,” Mize explained. “We actually ran it as a traffic operation, but we were looking for other stuff.”

The Toccoa operation took place overnight from Friday July 19 at 8 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Saturday, July 20.  According to Chief Mize, 95 traffic stops were initiated across the city during that time.

“We had six felony drug arrests,” he said. “They ranged from ecstacy pills, to meth, to THC vape oil, and marijuana. Marijuana was our midemeanor arrest. The rest were felony drug arrests. We also had one vehicle that was stopped that had a firearm inside along with drugs. So, we seized one gun in the operation.”

Most of those arrested live in Stephens County and the Chief said they had more arrests than they expected.  Mize said the other stops were either traffic citations or warnings given at the stop.

He said Toccoa Police will likely conduct a similar operation in the fall.