NEW ORLEANS — Over the past four weeks, teams of federal, state and local law enforcers have fanned out across the New Orleans area, targeting areas plagued by narcotics trafficking, shootings and killings.
“Every single action taken over the last month was part of an effort to dismantle violent enterprises and reclaim our communities,” New Orleans FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said.
Thursday, the FBI gave an update on “Operation Clean House.”
The violent crime reduction initiative involved 18 agencies from across the region.
The operation ended this week with a total of 155 arrests, 54 firearms confiscated, and dangerous drugs taken off the streets.
SAC Myrthil said task force members also seized 10 glock switches which can convert a semi-automatic handgun into a machine gun.
“The partners you see here in this room collaborated for months identifying and prioritizing the most violent individuals in the Greater New Orleans area,” Myrthil said.
Subjects arrested during the operation now face a long list of charges including murder, aggravated battery and a variety of drug and gun crimes.
The task force included the New Orleans Police Department, Louisiana State Police and sheriff offices from surrounding parishes.
“As we continue to build our police force, we believe having these partnerships is an excellent model to address violent crime and take violent criminals off the streets,” NOPD Deputy Chief Hans Ganthier said.
“As we hear about the operations successes, know there are many more to come with Troop NOLA which remains committed to making the city of New Orleans a safe place for our residents and visitors,” LSP Supt. Robert Hodges said.
Law enforcement did draw some criticism after police pursuits, tied to this operation resulted in crashed vehicles.
One civilian driver was injured earlier this month when a suspect, fleeing from task force officers, crashed into two vehicles in Lakeview.
“We don’t have an articulated pursuit policy,” Myrthil said. “Our arrests are very intentional when we plan to conduct an arrest if we’re going to do a vehicle stop, the goal isn’t to pursue, the goal is to disable that vehicle and initiate the arrest if we can. They make the choice to flee, we have to apprehend them.”
According to the FBI, Operation Clean House is not a one and done effort, instead it’s a long-term, law enforcement strategy for Greater New Orleans.
“We call this a warning shot,” Myrthil said.
The list of participating agencies includes:
- FBI New Orleans
- New Orleans Police Department
- Louisiana State Police
- United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Air and Marine Operations
- Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
- Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
- United States Marshals
- Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
- Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
- Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
- St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office
- Tulane University Police Department
- East Bank Levee Police Department
- Harbor Police, Port of New Orleans
- Louisiana Attorney General's Office
- Louisiana Division of Probation and Parole
- St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office
- St. John Parish Sheriff's Office
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