Nearly 80 people are behind bars and hundreds of firearms and pounds of illicit drugs have been taken off the streets following a sweeping two-month law enforcement operation in Fort Worth, officials announced Wednesday.
Dubbed "Operation Showdown," the joint, undercover effort ran from early April through the end of May. It included agencies such as the DEA, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and several local and federal partners.
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WATCH HEREAuthorities say the operation is one of the largest and swiftest crackdowns on violent crime ever carried out in the Tarrant County area.
“What we're doing is sending a message to our citizens that we're going after the bad guys, and we're getting them,” said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
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SIGN UP In total, 76 individuals were arrested — many of them convicted violent felons and others believed to be in the country illegally with suspected ties to a Venezuelan gang and organized crime, officials said during the press conference. The charges center on drug trafficking and illegal possession or distribution of firearms.
“The removal of 76 gun and drug traffickers from the streets will have a lasting impact on this city,” added Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson. “They are no longer out there pedaling their guns and their drugs, which would have led to more and more crime.”
Officers displayed the seized evidence on three tables during a press conference, showing the scale of the operation:
- More than 280 firearms were recovered, including 147 illegal machine gun conversion devices, which can turn semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones.
- 22 kilograms of narcotics — including cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl — were confiscated.
- The DEA reported that the amount of fentanyl alone was enough for 240,000 potentially lethal doses.
“That is a staggering amount when you look at it. Fentanyl cannot fade into the white noise of our society. It has to stay at the forefront because families and lives are affected,” said Eduardo Chávez, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA’s Dallas Office. “With the amount of contraband seized here, it's very apparent that there are some neighborhoods where parents can freely let their kids maybe have an afternoon play date out in that front yard or apartment complex without fear.”
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While officials did not disclose the exact locations where the operation was focused, they confirmed enforcement occurred in five key areas spread across all corners of Fort Worth.
“This is about protecting our families and making sure drug dealers know that Tarrant County is not open for their business,” said District Attorney Phil Sorrells.
Despite a violent weekend in the city, Fort Worth’s Interim Police Chief Robert Alldredge emphasized that the city is now safer than it was two months ago — before the operation began.
Officials said individuals taken into custody have already made their initial court appearances, with trials expected to begin in late summer and early fall.
