The Department of Justice touted hundreds of arrests as part of its Operation Show Me Justice in St. Louis, Missouri, on Thursday.
Beginning in August, the operation included members of the U.S. Marshals Service, ATF, DEA and the St. Louis Police Department, all surging their efforts to target guns, drugs and other crimes in the city.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced the conclusion of the months-long operation alongside Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.
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“Through Operation Show Me Justice, the teams have arrested 435 for drug crimes, firearm crimes, other crimes. That includes 412 outstanding warrant arrests. Most of these individuals already had outstanding warrants for arrest. Many of them had multiple,” McCotter told reporters at a news conference on Thursday.
The operation also yielded 80 kilos of drugs, 166 illegal firearms, six machine gun conversion devices, and over $1 million in seized currency, McCotter said.
McCotter went on to urge mayors, city councils and state officials across the country to contact federal authorities to carry out similar operations in their jurisdictions.
“The mission here rests on a simple premise, which is we don’t have to accept violent crime. It’s not something you have to shrug your shoulders at. It is not a fact of life in a city or anywhere else,” McCotter said.
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“I want to say something to all the mayors, the city councils, governors, police chiefs who are out there watching now: Violence is not inevitable. We want to partner with you. We want to work with you. We want to help you,” he added.
So far, federal authorities have also partnered with state and local law enforcement in Washington, D.C. and Memphis to carry out similar operations.
Thursday’s news conference comes roughly a week after federal and state authorities in California carried out a massive operation targeting Los Angeles‘ infamous Skid Row neighborhood.
Operation Save Skid Row saw federal and city authorities execute 28 arrest warrants and 44 search warrants in an effort to dismantle drug distribution networks in the notorious neighborhood.
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Over 100 law enforcement vehicles were involved in the operation, with arrests targeting members of multiple gangs, including the “Main Street Crips,” “Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips” and the “Pueblo Bishop Bloods.”
“We are no longer going to have open-air drug markets in the United States, let alone on Skid Row,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said during a news conference. “And that is the reason you see so many homeless people who are experiencing psychotic episodes, who are unwell, they aren’t seeking help, it’s because you have people, like the drug dealers we are arresting today, keeping them addicted and taking their public assistance money to pay for their drugs.”
