More than a dozen people are under arrest after a coordinated effort between federal, state, and local law enforcement led to the seizure of a large quantity of drugs and guns in Syracuse.
The effort dubbed Operation Clean Sweep netted more than 24 pounds of cocaine, over a pound of crack, three pounds of methamphetamine, and nearly a pound of fentanyl.
“You know what 365 grams of fentanyl can do? Approximately 180,000 people could die," said First Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sarcone. He said they also seized 37 illegally possessed firearms. Sarcone added it’s one of many operations they’re working on.
“The operations are not these two year long investigations," he said. "They're short, two, three months, and then bam, take down. We've done these throughout the district.”
The Northern District of New York includes more than 30 upstate counties in the eastern half of the state.
Syracuse Police Chief Mark Rusin said more work actually happens before they arrive. He was on the scene of one of the high-risk search warrants.
"It was a SWAT hit," he said. "These folks are waking up 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. They're prepping. It's very intense. They take this job very seriously. They're very professional in their planning, but it's the training that goes ahead of it. It's the back office work that nobody sees, so nothing bad happens during the execution of a high-risk search warrant.”
Onondaga County DA Bill Fitzpatrick said they worked from a list of about one-thousand people identified as gang members to target and arrest 13. He said Sarcone has cross-designated at least four assistant county DA’s to seek harsher penalties.
“Now, assistant DAs are saying, 'Judge, I'm cross-designated. I'm an assistant United States attorney. If this sentence doesn't meet your particular standards, I'll walk 1/4 of a mile over to the federal building and I'll see what the federal judges think about it,'" Fitzpatrick said. "And that makes a tremendous difference in helping us dispose of our cases.”
He said the 13 arrested are being prosecuted in federal court. Fitzpatrick added in his more than three decades as DA, it's the highest level of cooperation he’s had with federal agencies including the FBI, ATF, and DEA.
