225BatonRouge.com

Three convicted sex offenders are behind bars thanks to an operation conducted by the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office. Forty plainclothes sheriff’s deputies fanned out through FEMA’s Groom Road trailer park near Baker recently to get the answer to a question FEMA has steadfastly refused to provide to local law enforcement – namely, who lives at the park?

What’s more, the operation came as a direct result of 225 magazine’s February cover story, “FEMA’s dirty little secret.” The story illustrated how FEMA and its security contractor refused access to a reporter who later slipped into the park. Once inside, reporter Chuck Hustmyre found plenty of residents weary of the drug dealing, violence and the petty crime they say has made their exile from the New Orleans area even worse.

“Your article is what stirred it up,” sheriff’s spokesman Fred Raiford told 225 after the operation. “People were very appreciative, we got a lot of information.”