RAPIDES PARISH, La. - Recently, sheriff's office detectives targeted areas throughout the parish and made several drug arrests.
On Oct. 11, Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office detectives executed a search warrant in Cheneyville. Detectives say they received numerous complaints about Willie Anderson Birdlong still selling Hydrocodone pills from his home.
According to reports from the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office, Birdlong, 32, of 103 Roberts St. in Cheneyville, was charged in January on four different counts of drug charges and other related charges in October 2011.
Detectives opened an investigation and obtained a search warrant. Three different types of Hydrocodone pills were found during the search of his home, detectives say.
Birdlong was taken into custody without incident. He is being held in the Rapides Parish Detention Center on a $15,000 bond.
On Oct. 12, deputies assigned to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office Metro Division stopped at a convenience store on Bolton Avenue to make contact with the store owner about a complaint of drug sales on the property.
Deputies say they walked to the front door and passed Derek Sharp sitting inside his vehicle, holding numerous pills in his open hand.
Deputies made contact with Sharp, 37, of 249 Dyson Creek Rd. in Pollock, and discovered he didn't have a prescription for the pills. Deputies recovered Hydrocodone and Vicoprofin tablets from him.
Sharp, who was in the vehicle with a five-year-old relative, was taken into custody without incident. The child was released to parents. Sharp was transported to Rapides Parish Detention Center where he posted a $10,250 bond and was released.
On Oct. 13, detectives patrolled the Alexandria area for drug sales. According to reports, detectives observed two men make an apparent drug sale.
Detectives approached the two men, John L. Mitchell, 49, of 2135 Harris Street, in Alexandria, who tossed them an item from his hand and Ocie Williams, 61, of 2139 Harris Street in Alexandria was in possession of Hydrocodone. Detectives recovered crack cocaine near Mitchell's feet.
They were transported to the Rapides Parish Detention Center. Williams was released on a $5,000 bond and Mitchell is being held on a $5,000 bond.
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