Undercover operation in schools leads to 14 arrests

By Nathan Baker

Fourteen people were arrested, including nine students, during an undercover operation launched a year ago by the Carter County Sheriff’s Department in an attempt to ferret out drug dealers in the Carter County School System.

Sheriff Chris Mathes announced Monday that “Operation Jump Street” netted more than a dozen arrests on drugs and weapons charges.

Mathes said during the 10-month operation, one of his female deputies posed as a student and immersed herself in the drug culture of the four area high schools.

The sheriff said the deputy, who he did not name out of concern for the potential of retaliation for the arrests, gave up a year of her life to carry out the operation and was even sexually assaulted by a male student while a teacher was out of the classroom.

Once the officer was pulled out of her undercover assignment, sheriff’s department officers raided some of the  homes she identified as selling narcotics to minors.

Look for more information in Tuesday’s edition of the STAR.