33 drug suspects rounded up in Catawba County

Thirty-three drug suspects were arrested on Wednesday morning as part of Operation M-80, a roundup by the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office and the N.C. Department of Revenue.

Investigators sought 80 suspects on Wednesday who face 111 total felony indictments. The names of those not apprehended will be entered into a national crime database.

“Our tip line was the originating source of the majority of these investigations,” Jason Reid of the Catawba County Drug Task Force said later Wednesday. “The community as a whole has become very observant and continues to be a great source of information.”

The Gastonia Police Department Bomb Squad was called in when an explosives device was found at one of the suspect’s homes, in the 5200 block of Chaucer Street in Conover. The squad disarmed the device, a pipe bomb.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 8:24 PM with the headline "33 drug suspects rounded up in Catawba County."