Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin R. Steele, Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer announced today the results of “Operation Clean Sweep”, described as “a targeted law enforcement collaboration that interdicted drug trafficking from Philadelphia to outlying counties.”
The two-phase operation took place during September and October and resulted in the arrests of roughly 100 individuals, according to a press release.
The operation also seized 12 illegal firearms and various quantities of fentanyl/heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine/crack cocaine, PCP, oxycodone, suboxone, Xanax, psilocybin mushrooms, codeine, and marijuana. The street value of the narcotics is estimated to be more than $365,000.
“The Operation Clean Sweep collaboration will make communities safer with arrests of dozens of drug traffickers and seizures of firearms and deadly poisons that are not contained by municipal borders,” Attorney General Sunday said. “I am proud of my staff and our partners who employed sophisticated investigative tactics to close major trafficking pipelines between Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.”
District Attorney Steele said the drug trafficking problem was a shared problem.
“For too long, Philadelphia has been the epicenter for the supply of dangerous drugs, but we recognize that the counties surrounding Philadelphia — Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties—are also part of the problem,” District Attorney Steele said. “Drug traffickers and addicted individuals don’t recognize geographic, county boundaries when they get fentanyl, cocaine and other illegal drugs and then transport them into the counties to sell or use. All of law enforcement worked hand-in-hand on this multi-faceted operation to interrupt that flow of illegal drugs and to hold people accountable for this criminal behavior.”
“Operation Clean Sweep” comes about a week after FBI Director Kash Patel visited Philadelphia to champion a massive drug bust in Philadelphia. The raids were part of an indictment against 33 defendants allegedly part of a drug trafficking ring spanning nearly a decade that sold fentanyl and other narcotics throughout Kensington.
Photo: Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General