Thirteen people were arrested recently in Kemper County on varying charges of possession and sale of narcotics.

Sheriff Samuel Tisdale said the first batch came with the arrest of East Mississippi Community College students Steven Watson, 19, of Meridian, and Joshua McMullen, 20, of Mobile, Ala.

Watson has been charged with one count of possession of narcotics with intent to sell, and McMullen has been charged with two counts of possession of narcotics with intent to sell. Tisdale said both are currently out on bond. Their cases will be presented to a grand jury in October.

Two days after the arrests of McMullen and Watson, Tisdale said his department made 11 additional drug-related arrests. He said they are not related to the arrests of McMullen and Watson.

“It was not a drug ring; it was just different people selling or in possession of drugs,” Tisdale said.

The suspects include Derall Lashaun Brown, 26, of Preston, on one count of sale of marijuana within 1,500 feet of a church; John Gale, 25, of Kemper County, on two counts sale of crack cocaine; Julius McGraw, 22, of Preston, on one count of the sale of crack cocaine; Whitaker Adams, 24, of DeKalb, on four counts of the sale of crack cocaine; William Smith, 19, of Preston, on two counts of the possession of marijuana with the intent to sell; James Rush, 19, of Preston, on one count of the possession of marijuana with intent to sell; Marcell Chamberlain, 57, of Preston, on one count of possession of crack cocaine; Fredrick Hudson, 24, of DeKalb, on one count of the possession of crack cocaine; Jerry Patty, 36, of Preston on one count of possession of crack cocaine; and Shadrick Carter, 23, of Preston, on one count of the sale of a controlled substance.

Tisdale said he expects these cases to be presented to a grand jury in May.

The arrests mark what Tisdale said was one of the largest drug roundups in recent memory.

“And it’s not finished, either,” Tisdale said. “We’ve got 16 more in this operation that we will hopefully be able to pick up in the near future.”

Tisdale said the arrests represent about eight months of hard work.

“We did hours and hours of undercover work,” he said. “I want to thank my department for their hard work as well as the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. Any time we can get a drug dealer off the streets, I feel real good about that.”