"OPERATION WRONG EXIT "

JEFFERSONVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) - Guns, drugs, and even medical marijuana were all seized during a recent roadblock in Twiggs County.
 
"Operation Wrong Exit" was held over the St. Patrick's Day weekend. The safety road check was at exit 27, of I-16 east.

Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum says this is their 9th year of "Operation Wrong Exit."

More than 78 officers from 17 law enforcement agencies worked with the sheriff's office to arrest 134 people 19 of which was wanted by other agencies.

They seized six guns including an automatic rifle, three ounces of cocaine, seven pounds of marijuana, including bottles of medical marijuana from a Colorado woman. They also confiscated five vehicles and $5,000 in cash.

Mitchum says the safety road check comes down to saving lives, "If you save one life from a drunk driver running over an innocent person, or an innocent family that's traveling on the highways, you just save one life, that whole operation would have been worth it," said Mitchum.

A total of 297 citations and warrants were issued, ranging from DUI's to possession of a weapon or marijuana. Mitchum believes the confiscation of the guns was one of the most rewarding aspects of the roadblock.

"I feel good about taking those off the street and out of circulation," said the sheriff. "Maybe that's one person's life we've saved or the life of an officer somewhere that may have stopped them for some traffic infraction and ended up having to deal with the other end of the gun."

The Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Department of Natural Resources along with multiple units of the Middle Georgia Traffic Enforcement Network joined the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office in the road safety check.

"I believe in being proactive. If we can stop the crime or incident before it happens then I like doing that a lot better than cleaning up the mess and trying to figure out what did happen and by being proactive that's what you do."

According to Mitchum three people in a church van were stopped during the roadblock. Two of them were arrested for marijuana possession. The sheriff declined from giving additional information about the church van arrest. A brief breakdown of the arrest included, 64 people arrested for misdemeanor marijuana, 14 were arrested for felony marijuana. There were eight people arrested for cocaine possession and 14 were arrested for having drug related objects.

There were 15 people arrested for DUI and 38 people were arrested for having open containers. Deputies arrested 51 people for driving with a suspended license and 15 for driving without a license.