Former MS Coast corrections officer charged with drug trafficking, sheriff’s office says

Authorities on Wednesday arrested a former corrections officer who is accused of illegally trafficking fake pills laced with fentanyl from Louisiana to the Mississippi Coast, the Hancock County Sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office charged Tempest Ariana Martin, 20, of Diamondhead with conspiracy to possess a controlled substance with the intent to distribute, according to a press release.

The sheriff’s office said Martin and a co-conspirator who is still at large bought “large quantities” of counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl from Covington, Louisiana, and sold them in Hancock County.

Martin is a former corrections officer for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office, the department said in the release. Martin also worked as a 911 dispatcher for Hancock County Central Dispatch, but the release said she resigned from both roles after her arrest.

The sheriff’s office said an investigation showed Martin and the unnamed co-conspirator spent several months trafficking fentanyl-laced pills into South Mississippi. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is increasingly added to other drugs because of its heroin-like effect. It is 50 times stronger than heroin, 100 times stronger than morphine and can kill unsuspecting users with even a small dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Martin’s arrest came after authorities arrested and charged a Mexican national on Tuesday with transporting nine kilograms of fentanyl in his vehicle on Interstate 10 in Gulfport. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi said those drugs, in powder form, were worth $540,000.

Authorities set Martin’s bond at $25,000 before her initial appearance in Hancock County Justice Court, the release said. The sheriff’s department did not release further details and said “additional arrests are pending.”

Mary Perez contributed reporting.

This story was originally published October 26, 2023 at 1:09 PM.