The city of Oxford, Mississippi is a small college town located in Lafayette County. The city is home to the University of Mississippi, which attracts a young population and in turn attracts drug dealers looking to make a quick buck off young drug users. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has an office located in Oxford, which is responsible for monitoring drug activity in the area and busting up drug rings that operate in, and through, the city. The resident DEA office in Oxford is operated under the supervision of the district office in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Since Oxford is mostly centered around the university life, the most common drug abused in the city is marijuana. But, cocaine is also a popular drug, as well as prescription pills and psychedelic drugs among the college crowd. Outside of the city is a mostly rural area where prescription pills and crystal meth are abused in higher quantities than inside the city limits. The Oxford DEA also works with the college in terms of utilizing drug prevention programs and educational seminars on drug use and abuse.
Oxford DEA Jobs and Careers
When an applicant is considering a job with the DEA in Oxford, they must first review the basic requirements and then complete an application with the administration. Next, applicants will have to take part in multiple phases, which include interviews, examinations, screenings and background checks, among other things. Along with the basic requirements, applicants must also qualify for one of the following categories of experience:
- A Bachelor’s Degree with a 2.95 GPA
- An LL. B or J.D. Degree
- Extensive and specialized experience with drugs and narcotics investigations, seizures and busts
- Three years experience in military, maritime, pilot, accounting/ auditing, technical/ mechanical or language fluency subjects in combination with a Bachelor’s Degree (no GPA requirement)
DEA Activity in Oxford
- March 2012: The Oxford DEA seized more than 1 pound of marijuana and $33,000 in cash from a suspected drug dealer. The suspects were from Memphis, Tennessee and are believed to have gang connections that span the state of Mississippi and Arkansas.
- October 2011: Twenty two people were arrested in Oxford in connection with a 10-month long investigation into a drug dealing ring. The operation, known as “Operation Knight Rider,” seized an undisclosed amount of crack cocaine, as well as powder cocaine, marijuana, prescription pills and firearms.
- August 2011: Seventeen people were arrested on charges of dealing various drugs, including MDMA (ecstasy,) marijuana, and LSD (acid,) which were being sold in clubs attended mostly by University of Mississippi students. The dealer included a high school football coach and his two daughters, who were students at the university.