Seven people have been arrested on federal drug charges, six in Pike and Lincoln counties and one in Illinois.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday  federal, state, and local law enforcement arrested the following suspects in Lincoln and Pike counties:

Donyale Jerrel Holloway, 36, of Lincoln County.

Eugene Rodrigues Lewis, 35, of Pike County.

Shawanda V. Matthews, 30, of Pike County.

Samuel Cardell Reed, 30, of Pike County.

Veronica Denise Thomas, 37, of Pike County.

Gary Wayne Thompson, 33, of Pike County.

FBI agents in the FBI Chicago Division’s Rockford Resident Agency also arrested one additional suspect:

Ennis Cheko Montgomery, 48, of Belvidere, Ill.

Lewis, Reed, and Thompson are charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. Holloway, Matthews, Montgomery, Reed and Thomas are charged with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana.

The suspects arrested in Mississippi appeared before United States Magistrate Judge Linda Anderson Friday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Jackson. All were ordered held without bond until a detention hearing next week.

These arrests are the result of a more than two-year joint investigation into narcotics trafficking in south Mississippi by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force in Hattiesburg; the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics’ McComb District; the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation; Office of the Mississippi State Auditor; Marion County Sheriff’s Office; Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office; and Hattiesburg Police Department. The U.S. Marshals Service; Mississippi Department of Corrections; Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks; McComb Police Department; and Southwest Mississippi Narcotics Task Force assisted with the arrests.

The FBI Jackson Division’s Southeast Mississippi Safe Streets Task Force in Hattiesburg is made up of special agents from the FBI and law enforcement officers from the Office of the Mississippi State Auditor, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and Hattiesburg Police Department.