Operation River Walk leads to arrests, indictments in Decatur County drug probe

In Decatur County, the toll of drug trafficking shows up far from the jail docket, in overdose calls, property crime, and the strain on a small sheriff’s office serving 11,499 residents. Operation River Walk now has that problem tied to a nine-month undercover probe that ended with indictments and arrests across Decaturville, Parsons, Scotts Hill, Bath Springs and the rural roads between them.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said the operation targeted illicit drug sales in Decatur County and brought in deputies from the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office along with the Huntingdon Police Department, Henderson County Sheriff’s Department, Scotts Hill Police Department, Parsons Police Department, the McNairy County Sheriff’s Office, the 24th Judicial District Drug Task Force, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The scale of the investigation suggests officials were not chasing one isolated case but a wider distribution network that crossed county and town lines.

TBI said the probe led to more than a dozen indictments and arrests. WSMV reported that indictments were filed against two dozen people and that 11 had already been taken into custody. Investigators also seized two vehicles, including a dump truck authorities say was used in methamphetamine sales, a sign that the alleged drug trade moved through ordinary county business as much as through back roads and parking lots.

The public-health picture helps explain why the sweep matters. The Tennessee Department of Health’s 2025 county data package lists Decatur County’s fatal drug overdose rate at 51.5 per 100,000 residents and its non-fatal overdose rate at 6.6 per 1,000 residents. In a county with a median household income of $46,190, those numbers point to a community where drug addiction can quickly affect families, employers, schools and emergency responders.

County directories list Dale King as sheriff, Mike Creasy as county mayor and Matt Stowe as district attorney general, all offices that will now be part of the aftermath as cases move forward. The operation also fits a pattern in Decatur County: TBI announced an undercover drug investigation in September 2020 that led to arrests, and another in September 2025 that resulted in three arrests and seizures of marijuana, methamphetamine, Xanax and drug paraphernalia.