LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / December 20, 2000

HAHNVILLE – When the law enforcement officers showed up at the front door, Eddie Hills tried to escape out the back door to the nearby woods on Kennedy Street.

But he came face to face with a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent, armed with a shotgun.

“Whoa!” he said, and submitted to arrest.

This arrest came during the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office’s “OperationGrinch,” aimed at cleaning the streets of suspected cocaine and marijuana dealers. It began Monday at 5 a.m.Twenty-four suspects were being sought on 41 arrest warrants, all based on cases made earlier when the suspects reportedly sold drugs to undercover agents and were themselves caught on videotape.

Agents poured into one residence in Hahnville Monday morning and muttered that their prey was not in, but that he might be found at one of three other addresses.

Ten minutes later Todd Celestine was located on Paul Fredrick Street in Luling. He didn’t look pleased at being taken out in the near-freezingtemperatures of pre-dawn.

“We like to do a holiday roundup,” Sheriff Greg C. Champagne said. “We’re being the Grinch only to those people who deserve it; we’re Santa to everyone else.”Altogether, the first day’s hunt produced 10 arrests, including:

Deborah Lumar, 42, 1832 Paul Maillard Road, Luling, distribution of crack cocaine.

Cornell Lawrence, 29, 519 Kinler St., Luling, distribution of crack cocaine.

Davy Stipe Sr., 41, 1832 Paul Maillard Road, Luling, distribution of crackcocaine.

Todd Celestine, 19, 1105 Paul Fredrick St., Luling, distribution of crackcocaine.

Haywood Harry, 22, 239 Boutte Estates, Boutte, distribution of marijuana on public housing authority property.

Donald Barne, 21, 400 Courthouse Lane, Hahnville, distribution of crack cocaine on public housing authority property.

Eddie Hills, 24, 338 Kinler St., Boutte, distribution of crack cocaine.

Wilbert Celestine, 24, 827 Milling Ave., Luling, distribution of crack cocaine.

Mathew Aittama, 20, 123 Devon Road, LaPlace, distribution of marijuana and Valium.

Kevin Ohordorff, 19, 37 Bonura Drive, St. Rose, distribution of marijuanaand Zanax.

Champagne noted that drug trafficking tends to increase during the holiday period, but sweeps such as this tend to slow that down, as well as slow down property crimes such as thefts and burglaries.

“We’re going to keep after it,” the sheriff said. “We’re not going anywhere.”

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