Griffin: ‘Taking these criminals off Arkansas streets is a huge win for justice in our state’
LITTLE ROCK – Following a slew of arrests Thursday in Blytheville as the result of a collaborative law enforcement investigation of organized retail crime, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:
“The arrests today of nine individuals by the Blytheville Police Department are the culmination of months of collaboration between the department, my office, Homeland Security Investigations, the Arkansas State Police, Osceola Police Department, Mississippi County Sheriff’s Office, Memphis Police Department, Lebanon (TN) Police Department and Home Depot Organized Crime Investigations. The criminals in this matter are part of an organized crime ring that has targeted retail establishments in northeast Arkansas and our neighboring states.
“Fighting organized retail crime is one of my top priorities because these criminals are stealing from retailers, and Arkansans are paying the price. Also, organized retail crime is often a funding source for criminals who engage in more illicit activity, including violent crimes like human trafficking and even murder.
“Taking these criminals off Arkansas streets is a huge win for justice in our state, and I am supremely proud of all the law enforcement and retail partners who have worked together on this case.”
Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson added the following statement:
“All of the offenders are presumed innocent until found guilty. That being said, I want to make this clear to any and all individual criminals, criminal groups, criminal gangs, criminal organizations or criminal enterprises operating in the City of Blytheville or State of Arkansas: We have the personnel, technology, motivation and organization to put you and your associates in jail for a substantial amount of time.”
About Attorney General Tim Griffin
Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.
Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.
He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.
Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.
Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin attends Immanuel Baptist Church and lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.
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