Local Sweep Helps Get Criminals Off Street

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By Holly Zuluaga

Summary

"Operation Summer Heat" exposed dangerous criminals hiding right here in the Tri-Cities. Local law enforcement worked with the feds to put more than 150-people in jail in just three days. KEPR Action News uncovered that gang members were sneaking around in our community and they're not even from here.

Story Published: Aug 31, 2010 at 7:52 AM PST

TRI-CITIES--"Operation Summer Heat" exposed dangerous criminals hiding in the Tri-Cities.

Local law enforcement worked with the feds to put more than 150-people in jail in just a few days.

KEPR Action News uncovered that gang members were sneaking around in our community and they're not even from here.

Armed and ready, local law enforcement grabbed criminal after criminal from across the Tri-Cities.

The sweep last week pulled in 162 bad guys from Yakima to Walla Walla.

"Sometimes you just have to sweep the crud off the street," Sheriff Ken Irwin with Yakima County said.

Half of those arrests were in the Tri-Cities.

About a dozen in Walla Walla.

The sweep covered more than 100-miles because gangs are on the move.

This new task force says if you put the squeeze in one place they just move somewhere else.

"If they hit in Richland and the bad guys move up into Yakima, we're there. They move somewhere else, we are there," Chief Deputy Eric Marks with the U.S. Marshals said.

The focus was violent offenders using U.S. Marshals as backup to local cops.

They discovered dangerous people hiding out in the Tri-Cities.

Two men wanted in Grant County were found here.

One in Kennewick and the other in Richland.

As gangs stay on the move so does law enforcement.

"I want to assure bad guys that we are out there, we aren't going away, these type of operations will continue we will be targeting you," Chief Deputy Eric Marks, with the U.S. Marshals said.

Working together to keep the gangs out of our towns.

Police tell KEPR Action News the original list for the Tri-Cities had 63 people they wanted to catch, but that jumped to 93 as cops got more information.

They plan to continue random sweeps as the months go on.