By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – A Shelby County man accused of circulating a fake list of Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force informants on social media surrendered this week and has been released from jail.

Jeffrey Scott Carter, 30, was booked into the Shelby County Jail on second-degree criminal possession of a forged document and obstructing governmental operations charges on March 7. He was released the same day after posting a $6,000 bond.

Prior to his surrender, Carter was sought by authorities for allegedly distributing a fraudulent list of 18 names labeled as task force informants on Facebook.

“On March 2 at about 3 p.m., the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force was made aware from a citizen complaint about a suspected ‘list’ floating around social media alleging that the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force had released the names of informants employed by the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force,” Task Force Commander Lt. Clay Hammac said. “Knowing that’s obviously not our practice, we investigated and identified the list to have been created and published by Jeffrey Scott Carter.”

Hammac said Carter’s alleged circulation of the list caused “unnecessary alarm within the community as well as from those victims listed on the document.”

“The names that are on this list have not, do not nor will they ever be used as informants for the Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force,” Hammac said. “We go above and beyond to safeguard our sources of intelligence that we gather from the community to include citizen complaints.”