GREENSBORO, N.C. — A summer-long push against gun and drug trafficking across the Triad produced criminal charges against 104 people, federal and local officials announced Wednesday at Greensboro Police Department headquarters, where seized weapons covered the tables of the media room.
The federal ATF ran the effort from June 1 through Sept. 30 with state and local partners. Investigators concentrated on Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem and nearby communities with high rates of violent crime and firearms trafficking, relying on ballistics tracing and analysis of guns recovered at crime scenes to pick targets. The ATF has run similar surges in other cities, among them Chicago, St. Louis and Miami.
Officials said the surge produced 75 criminal investigations. Of the 104 people charged, 72 face federal counts and 32 face state charges for firearms and narcotics offenses. Agents carried out 229 operations and 46 search warrants and seized 163 guns, 102 machine gun conversion devices and more than 37 kilograms of drugs, including crack, methamphetamine, fentanyl and cocaine.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office worked with the ATF to build the federal cases, and prosecutors warned that traffickers anywhere in the district’s 22 counties would face the same treatment. The Greensboro Police Department, the High Point and Winston-Salem police departments, several county sheriff’s offices and the State Bureau of Investigation took part.
Officials called it the first large-scale operation of its kind in the Triad in more than three years and said the work in targeted neighborhoods will continue.
Section: More Greensboro NC crime news
Filed under: Greensboro NC Crime News
