The five county metropolitan area of Jackson, Mississippi has a total population of 539,057. The size of Jackson, as well as its location along major Southern highways like Interstate 55, Interstate 20, Interstate 220, United States Highway 49 and United States Highway 89, make it a popular destination for drug traffickers looking to bring drugs not only into the city of Jackson, but also through the city into the interior of the United States and also to the East and West Coasts of the country via the Mexico border and Florida.
Because of Jackson’s location along major drug trafficking corridors, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has an office located in the city with numerous agents dedicated to stopping drug trafficking and distribution in and around the city. The DEA resident office in Jackson operated under the supervision of the DEA district office, which is located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The largest drug epidemics in Jackson, Mississippi are crack cocaine, marijuana and crystal meth. The manufacturing of crystal meth is particularly troubling because it is being made in the rural parts of the state and then brought into the urban areas of the state in clandestine meth labs, which are very difficult to locate. There is also a problem with Mexican drug cartels smuggling drugs into the country via Texas and then moving those drugs into the South to be sold by partners of the cartel and local gangs.
Jackson DEA Jobs and Careers
When an applicant is considering how to become a DEA agent in Jackson, they must first review the basic requirements and then complete an application. There is also an extensive training program that applicants must go through. Along with the basic requirements, applicants must also meet one of the following qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree with at least a 2.95 GPA
- LL B. or J.D. Degree (no GPA requirement)
- Extensive experience in criminal investigations involving narcotics
- A bachelor’s degree (no GPA requirement) and three years experience in military operations, mechanical/ technical knowledge, maritime/ pilot operations, foreign language fluency or accounting/ auditing procedures
The DEA in Jackson – Major Busts in Recent Years
The Jackson DEA is responsible for conducting numerous investigations and drug busts in the area. The following are some of the most significant drug busts and investigations conducted by the DEA in the area:
- April 2013: $315,000 worth of marijuana was seized from a semi-truck that was supposed to be transporting oranges through Jackson and into the Midwest. The two men arrested for drug smuggling were from the Houston, Texas area but had some kind of ties to Jackson, according to the Jackson DEA.
- March 2012: Seven people were arrested in Jackson during a large drug bust. The bust involved the investigation of two large scale money laundering schemes, and when all was said and done the DEA seized more than $854,000 in cash, as well as drugs, paraphernalia and firearms.