NEW BERN, NC (WNCT) – The Craven County Sheriff’s Office said they have arrested 24 people from across North Carolina during a month-long drug bust.

In a press release, the deputies said it led a multi-agency investigation titled “Operation Fall Clean-Up,” which investigated people allegedly selling illegal drugs in and around Craven County.

“We’re not going to tolerate it. We are in the process of taking back our communities and some of this stuff has been going on for too long,” said Sheriff Chip Hughes. “These folks believe it’s okay to bring this poison in to our community. It’s not, and it needs to stop and we’re going to continue to aggressively go after them.”

Deputies said as a result of the investigation they arrested a total of 24 suspects from Asheville, Ayden, Ernul, New Bern, Newport, Ocean Isle Beach, Vanceboro, and Winterville.

“We’re just getting started. This is just a warm up. We constantly have operations going and we’re not going after necessarily the low level folks. We’re going after folks for the most part that are bringing significant amounts of narcotics in to our county,” said Hughes.

The suspects face a total of 48 felony charges and 23 misdemeanor charges after investigators executed search warrants in multiple locations, where they seized heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, pills, cash, and firearms.

Here are the names and charges of the people arrested:

• Braelyn Jaminson Blount, 28, of New Bern, was charged with an indictment for four felony counts possession with intent sell/deliver heroin, two felony counts possession with intent sell/deliver fentanyl, and two counts possession drug paraphernalia.
• Charity Hughes Credle, 37, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony trafficking heroin, felony possession with intent manufacture sell/deliver heroin, felony maintaining a dwelling for controlled substance, felony possession with intent manufacture/sell/deliver fentanyl, felony possession with intent manufacture/sell/deliver methamphetamine, felony possession with intent manufacture/sell/deliver suboxone, felony possession with intent manufacture/sell/deliver marijuana, and possession drug paraphernalia.
• Tomas James Maldonado, 19, of New Bern, was charged with felony possession with intent manufacture sell/deliver heroin, felony possession with intent to sell/deliver marijuana, and carrying a concealed weapon.
• Ronald Davis Jr, 28, of New Bern, was charged with felony manufacturing heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Timothy Stephen Holton, 30, of New Bern, was charged with felony possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Brenda Fulton Holton, 60, of New Bern, was charged with felony possession of heroin and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Nicholas Frank Onorato, 35, of Ernul, was charged with felony possession of heroin, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving while impaired, and driving while license revoked.
• Melissa Dail Merritt, 34, of Ayden, was charged with and felony possession of heroin, two felony counts level three trafficking cocaine and felony conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.
• Reginal Pascal Smith, 49, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony maintaining a vehicle used for keeping and selling heroin, felony possession of cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia, and aid and abetting impaired driver.
• Bradley Scott Robey, 45, of New Bern, was charged with two felony counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver schedule methamphetamine, felony maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Victoria McWhorter, 26, of Asheville, was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine and felony possession of a controlled substance in a prison or jail.
• Thomas Harry Tanner, 46, of New Bern, was charged with felony possession methamphetamine and possession drug paraphernalia.
• Sierra Dawn Whitley, 31, Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession methamphetamine.
• Bobby Joe Fields, 44, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession methamphetamine.
• Ashton Maurice Jones, 36, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession methamphetamine.
• Kristen Elizabeth Rice, 37, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession methamphetamine.
• Shakeem Dolphin, 38, of Winterville, was charged with two felony counts level three trafficking cocaine and felony conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.
• Charles Gavin Norris, of Ernul, was charged with felony possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and child abuse.
• Linda Loraine Stevens, 57, of Newport, was charged with felony possession of cocaine and possession drug paraphernalia.
• Latif Dequan Holley, 29, of New Bern, was charged with felony possession of cocaine, felony possession controlled substance on jail premises, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
• Artavis Deonte Moore, 30, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession cocaine, felony possession controlled substance in jail, and possession drug paraphernalia.
• Bryan Paul Banks, 62, of New Bern, was charged with felony sell/deliver schedule II controlled substance.
• Christopher Carl Gillien, 33, of Isle Beach, was charged with felony possession with intent manufacture/sell/deliver schedule IV controlled substance and possession of schedule IV controlled substance.
• Donterio Dejuan Watkins, 38, of Vanceboro, was charged with felony possession with intent to sell/deliver marijuana, felony maintaining vehicle for a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to heed emergency light or siren, and driving while license revoked.

“Operation Fall Clean-Up” was led by the CCSO, and also involved officers from these agencies: City of New Bern Police Department, Greenville Regional Drug Taskforce, North Carolina Department of Public Safety Probation & Parole (DPS), North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Craven County District Attorney’s Office.

“None of us alone have the resources we need to be able to tackle this. So, when we bring all of our resources together and share the intel that’s crucial to the success of these operations,” said Hughes.