JACKSONVILLE — Twenty-one Cherokee County residents have been indicted on federal charges following a year-long investigation between local police authorities and the FBI.

The investigation focused on gang-related drug and weapons dealers, many of whom authorities said are career criminals with lengthy arrest records, according to a joint press release from the Jacksonville Police Department and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department.

“This is exactly the type of interagency cooperation that rids our communities of criminals who sell drugs and guns while recruiting our children into gangs,” Jacksonville Police Chief Reece Daniel said in the release.

Over the course of the investigation guns, including one machine gun, were seized, as well as commercial quantities of cocaine, crack cocaine and methamphetamine from the city of Jacksonville and rural parts of Cherokee County.

Daniel said at least 2 pounds of meth and $12,700 was taken off the streets, and there is potential for more to be recovered. He said the substance is generally sold by the gram.

Cherokee County Sheriff James Campbell said most of the burglaries and violent crimes in the county are a direct result of drugs.

“Many drug dealers move into the rural areas of the county and feel that they will not attract as much attention to themselves as they would in the cities,” Campbell said in the statement. “Many of these arrests were from rural parts of the county. The Cherokee County Sheriffs Department  always had a zero tolerance on drug activity.”

Each suspect was arrested quietly and put in federal custody as indictments were pending over the 12 months to ensure the integrity of the operation, the release states. According to records at the sheriff’s department, six were arrested between June and July.

Daniel said no “small time” dealers were arrested, and each taken into custody were large players in the county's drug trade. He said they were all indicted by the Federal Grand Jury in Tyler, will be tried in federal courts and, if convicted, will serve their sentences in a Federal Correctional Facility.

Five were arrested for a gang-related drug operation. The members were allegedly involved in the sale of narcotics, guns and inspection certificates.  

• Manuel Esau Mendez, 24

• Servando Cabrales, 24

• Francisco Yuriel Nava, 32

• Raul Benitez Arellano, 27

• Pedro Gonzalez III, 28

Eleven were allegedly part of a methamphetamine operation. Members were allegedly responsible for numerous burglaries and copper thefts. Members are accused of receiving stolen property in exchange for narcotics, selling of narcotics, and putting guns in the hands of felons and drug dealers in Jacksonville and Cherokee County.

• Matthew Randall Moore, 28

• Kevin Wade Gray, 31

• Jesse Lee Mims, 24

• Kayla Breann Tompkins, 23

• Parfidio Ortega, 43

• James Andrew Fields, 33

• Andrew Willard Tarver Jr., 21

• Terry Ron Yates, 41

• Steven Ray Blaine, 21

• Cody Francis Ormond, 23

• Johnathan Mark Adcock, 36

Five others were arrested whose names are not being released by authorities.