Officials: Weekend roundup success
By John Joyce
Published in News on September 21, 2015 1:46 PM
News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Interim Police Chief Mike West speaks during a press conference held this morning to give an update on this weekend's special operation.
At a press conference this morning at the new Goldsboro-Wayne Transportation Authority transfer center, Interim Goldsboro Police Chief Mike West thanked the many state and local agencies that participated in this weekend's Operation Team Effort.
"This past weekend we had 86 law enforcement professionals that came here to Goldsboro with one goal in mind. That was to get the criminals off the street and put them where they belong, and that's behind bars," West said.
Led by Goldsboro and N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement, and supported by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office, officers from 10 agencies hit the streets of Goldsboro to clamp down on guns, drugs and violence.
Over two nights, the local, state and federal agencies conducted foot patrols, surveillance, traffic stops, license checkpoints and administrative inspections with Probation and Parole, served arrest warrants and executed search warrants, West said.
"Not only were the criminals themselves targeted, but also where they congregate. Convenience stores, street corners, housing areas -- they were targeted also," he said. The message does not only apply to the criminals but also to those willing to harbor them, he added.
"If you're going to continue to harbor criminals or allow them to operate on your property, or in your area, we are going to come after you, too," West said.
And he is not alone. The entire operation came about at the request of the Goldsboro City Council to State Rep. and Goldsboro native John Bell.
Bell was able to solicit contacts from Raleigh and the Governor's Crime Commission, including ALE, to deploy resources to Goldsboro for and immediate, intermediate and long-term response to gang activity, drug dealing and violent crime
"This is a multi-phase project, and I was happy to be a part of it," Bell said.
ALE Special Agent in Charge Eric Swain, of the ALE Greenville Office, said his agents are here for the long haul to help the community of Goldsboro and those in Wayne County being held hostage by the criminals and violence.
"We covered a lot of ground. We had a lot of great cases that we made. Our operation was driven by local intelligence that allowed us to go into areas where the major problems were," Swain said.
Swain said the intermediate operation will last throughout the end of the year and will include operations similar to Operation Team Effort every weekend from now until then.
None of the local establishments targeted this weekend have been immediately shut down. That is not what ALE does, Swain said.
Recommendations will be made to the ABC board that will likely result in the revocation of those permits, he said.
And long term, many of the arrests and surveillance operations conducted this weekend and in the coming weeks will result in federal cases against the worst criminal element operating in the city and county, Swain said.
"(We had) several felony drug cases, heroin, cocaine, gun cases, felony possession of a firearm by felon, that sort of thing. There were a lot of individuals taken off the street and put into the jail that needed to go," he said.
Those cases will be bolstered by an accumulation of intelligence and potentially of charges that will qualify those cases to be adopted by the U.S. attorney and prosecuted federally, Swain said.
Mayor Al King took a moment to thank the multiple agencies and agents that came to assist Goldsboro in its time of need. The operation was the first of its kind ever to be held in Goldsboro or Wayne County.
"This may be a first for our city, but for the bad guys it won't be the last," King said.