Big Federal-Local Drug Sweep Brings 26 Philadelphia Arrests

Agents arrested 26 people suspected of being drug dealers and sought 30 more in the largest cooperative drug sweep by federal and local authorities in the nation’s history, U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Wednesday.

“We want to push the drug dealers out of the communities they have terrorized and give the communities back to the people,” said Meese, who toured the notorious North Philadelphia neighborhood where the arrests were made.

Model for Other Areas

He said the Neighborhood Drug Dealers Project, the joint program that culminated in the arrests, would be used as a model for similar drug sweeps throughout the country.

Police officers began rounding up suspects late Monday, and at least 26 were in custody Wednesday, most for allegedly selling cocaine. Authorities described those arrested as middle-level dealers who sold the drugs to street dealers.

The arrests followed a federal indictment of 56 people after seven months of undercover operations.

Most of the suspects were charged with selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school or for selling drugs after a previous drug conviction, Meese said.

After announcing the arrests, Meese, U.S. Atty. Edward Dennis, city Police Commissioner Kevin Tucker and other authorities toured the neighborhood to demonstrate how the action had “cleaned up” an area where drug dealers once plied their trade in broad daylight.

New Federal Action

Federal drug enforcement efforts “normally target multistate or international crime and drug rings,” and the Philadelphia drug sweep was the first federal effort aimed at neighborhood drug dealing, Meese said.

Dennis said the city’s highest-level drug dealers were not arrested in the sweep but added: “We are making substantial progress up the chain of distribution.”