A drug trafficking operation that dealt in heroin, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs has been broken up, with six men arrested and another still at large.

Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale announced Monday that a year-long investigation called “Operation Active Diligence” was based in the community of Dixiana, located just northeast of Pinson and adjacent to Palmerdale. But the drug crimes that were part of the investigation were spread all the way from Gardendale and Kimberly in the west, Clay in the east, Center Point and Huffman to the south, and southern Blount County to the north.

“Dixiana is very hard to get in and out of. It’s an old mining community, and there’s one way in and one way out. So when one of our deputies came through, everyone in the community knew,” Hale said.

That presented problems for Hale’s narcotics unit, because the suspects could tell when a patrol was in progress. Hale said his investigators used various means, such as electronic surveillance, to catch traffickers in the act.

Hale said residents had long complained about the illicit activity, which was even harder to track because many of the drug deals had gone mobile — operating out of car trunks and such.

Of the six suspects arrested, two are believed to be responsible for supplying the others with most of the narcotics: Frederick Dowdell, 49, of Birmingham and Lyndon Fitzgerald Brown, 50, of Pinson.

Dowdell faces a total of nine counts: trafficking heroin, unlawful possession of marijuana, four counts of unlawful distribution of heroin and three counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance. Dowdell’s total bond is set at $588,000.

Brown faces five counts of unlawful distribution of cocaine, five counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana. His bond was set at $138,000.

Dowdell and Brown were characterized by Hale as “mid-level” dealers. “[Brown] was by far the most active, and he is the one that probably had the most information,” Hale added.

The other suspects include:

• Christoper Ray Stubbs, 40, of Pinson, charged with one count of unlawful distribution of heroin with bond of $15,000

• Charles Ray Moss Jr., 45, of Pinson, charged with two counts of unlawful distribution of heroin with bond of $30,000

• Jesse Ronaldo Newsome, 31, of Birmingham, charged with three counts of chemical endangerment of a child and one count of unlawful possession of marijuana, with bond of $21,000 (the child-endangerment charges stem from the presence of children when Newsome was arrested)

• Cortney DeJuan Payne, 40, of Pinson, charged with one count each of unlawful possession of cocaine, heroin and marijuana, with bond of $7,500

All six posted bond and have been released. Several suspects have either previous arrests on drug charges, were awaiting trial on other drug charges, or both.

One suspect remains at large: Fredice DeWayne Joseph of Pinson, who is wanted on two counts of unlawful distribution of heroin.

Hale said that heroin made up the largest quantity of the narcotics involved, and that residents of Dixiana tipped them off to the illicit activity.

“This could not have been done without the information from the Dixiana community residents,” he said. “As long as I’ve been sheriff, we’ve always fielded complaints about problems [there], and this is the first time we’ve been able to crack the code, and been able to launch a successful investigation…. Maybe it was a perfect storm, but a lot of prayers were answered in Dixiana.”