BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - It wasn't what Derrick Weatherington would have considered a lucky day.

In the middle of burglarizing a house in Birmingham, Weatherington was surprised by an FBI SWAT team. They were entering the same house, looking for suspected drug dealer Grady Isam "Shady Grady" Jenkins, when lawmen said they caught Weatherington in the act.

"He's got to be the most unlucky criminal in the history of Birmingham,'' said Richard D. Schwein Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Birmingham Division.

But check that. It may have been this unlucky criminal's lucky day after all.

"I think he was relieved it was the FBI and not the owner of the home that surprised him,'' Schwein said. "Had the owner of the home walked in on him, it may have been much more violent."

Authorities today arrested eight men, and are still searching for a ninth, in a connection with a 41-count federal indictment on drug conspiracy. Lawmen said the large-scale drug operation brought about $5 million worth of heroin and cocaine into the Birmingham area in less than a year.

FBI and Birmingham police SWAT teams fanned out over the city beginning at 6 a.m. to capture their suspects. Schwein said when they got to Jenkins' home, they quickly realized he wasn't there. Someone else, however, was inside.

"The agents noticed the back door had been pried open and they encountered an individual inside the home,'' Schwein said. "There was a rented car parked in the back that had in its trunk several of Mr. Jenkins belongings."

Agents descended upon Weatherington, handcuffed him and then handed him over to Birmingham police. Spokesman Sgt. Johnny Williams Jr. said this evening that Weatherington has been formally charged with burglary.

Jenkins was later arrested as well. "I've been doing this 25 years,'' Schwein said, "and it never ceases to amaze me the things you run up against when you're conducting arrests and searches at 0-dark-thirty in the morning."