South Florida deputies arrest federal fugitive from Coffee County

Operation Sandy Bottom has yielded another arrest.

On Friday, April 9, 2021, deputies in South Florida arrested Marquis Jerome “Joc” Jacques during a traffic stop. Jacques was a target in January’s Operation Sandy Bottom, a federal drug conspiracy investigation which rounded up a number of alleged drug dealers in the area. A Coffee County native, Jacques had been in Alma and teams working Bacon County during Sandy Bottom had been searching for him.

Friday, Hendry County, Fla., deputies conducted a traffic stop on Jacques’s vehicle and discovered a quantity of illegal drugs. They immediately arrested Jacques and charged him with parole violation (Georgia), two counts of possession of a scheduled control substance, and possession of marijuana less than one ounce.

The federal charges from Operation Sandy Bottom are conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and an amount of cocaine, crack cocaine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, marijuana, Eutylone (bath salts) and Alprazolam (Xanax); and distribution of methamphetamine, two counts of distribution of five grams or more of methamphetamine and distribution of 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

He will be formally arraigned by a federal magistrate to determine whether he will be detained pending trial in this matter.