Interesting sub-story to the Jessica Chambers murder investigation. Reporter Therese Apel provides information on considerable gang and criminal sweep occurring as an outcropping of the year-long murder case.
The arrests are unrelated to the Chambers case – they are as a result of information gathered during the investigation which revealed additional criminal activity in/around the Panola County area.
MISSISSIPPI – Seventeen people have been charged in north Mississippi as a part of a major operation targeting suspected gang members called “Operation Bite Back,” officials said.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Don Alway announced the offensive early Tuesday morning.
Officials say the operation focuses on Panola County and is a byproduct of the deep investigation that has come through the probe into the death of Jessica Chambers, a 19-year-old burned alive on Dec. 6, 2014, in Courtland. Just after 8 p.m., Chambers was doused with gasoline and set on fire in her car next to the gate of some private land on Herron Road. She got out of the car and was found on the road with burns over most of her body. She died hours later at a hospital in Memphis.
Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby confirmed that Tuesday’s arrests are not directly related to Chambers’ death but to information gathered as authorities have interviewed more than 150 people and sorted through more than 20,000 phone records trying to find her killer.
FBI Spokesman Jason Pack said as the FBI assisted state and local investigators, suspected illegal activity came to light through the case and resulted in the indictments and arrests Tuesday morning. The indictments in both the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi and Mississippi’s 17th circuit court district charge the seventeen suspects on a variety of violations ranging from child endangerment, possession of stolen firearms, narcotics sales, and felon in possession of a firearm to possession of counterfeit currency. (read more)