Nearly 2 million doses of fentanyl and heroin were seized, 54 guns confiscated and 45 people arrested in a monthslong war on drugs and guns in Allegheny County\u2019s eastern suburbs, the state Attorney General\u2019s Office announced Monday.<\/p>\n
The Eastern Allegheny Initiative task force this year brought together 13 different law enforcement agencies \u2014 from local forces in Pittsburgh, Turtle Creek and Penn Hills to federal outfits like the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration. The state Attorney General\u2019s Office guided the operation.<\/p>\n
Authorities said one theme bound together the disparate elements of the task force: Crime knows no geographical boundaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cBig city problems are not only based in big cities,\u201d Attorney General Dave Sunday said during a Monday press conference in the Strip District building that houses his Pittsburgh office. \u201cWhen parents, families and children feel unsafe in their own homes, that is unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The initiative seized about $150,000 in cash. The drug hauls were substantial: nearly 1.7 million doses of fentanyl, 200,000 doses of heroin and 13.5 kilos of cocaine. The cocaine alone has a street value of $35,000.<\/p>\n
A \u201cdose\u201d of fentanyl measures just two milligrams \u2014 roughly the weight of \u201ca grain of sugar,\u201d Sunday said.<\/p>\n
\u201dThis,\u201d Sunday said, holding up a postage-stamp-sized baggie, \u201cis literally all it takes to end your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday was flanked by FBI agents and officers representing police serving cities as well as suburban neighborhoods. Allegheny County Police Superintendent Chris Kearns and Assistant Superintendent Victor Joseph also attended.<\/p>\n
Monroeville police Chief Kenneth \u201cDoug\u201d Cole said his officers are seeing the difference the drug seizures and arrests have made.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does affect (drug activity on) the street level \u2014 we see it day to day,\u201d Cole said.<\/p>\n
Cole characterized the recent uptick in crime to Pittsburgh\u2019s east that triggered the task force\u2019s creation as a \u201cscourge of violence with both drugs and guns.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not cite specific numbers.<\/p>\n
Myriad agencies collaborated to push back against that tide of violent crime. And collaboration among different agencies, several officials said Monday, was key to the initiative\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrug trafficking organizations do not respect jurisdictional boundaries,\u201d said Christopher Giordano, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI\u2019s Pittsburgh office.<\/p>\n
Sunday said the task force opened more than 50 cases to address drugs and guns in Allegheny County. The cases also led officers to confiscate at least six Glock \u201cswitches,\u201d which transform semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic ones.<\/p>\n
Sunday said those \u201cswitches\u201d have one purpose: \u201cTo maximize killing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police officers also collaborated with peers farther east than Monroeville. Two \u201cparallel investigations\u201d this May led to arrests at a pair of Philadelphia homes, Sunday said. People there were bagging the drugs that eventually were sold on the streets of Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
A targeted traffic stop in Wilkinsburg yielded thousands of dollars worth of cocaine and at least three guns, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese weren\u2019t small-time operations,\u201d Sunday said.<\/p>\n
The FBI\u2019s Giordano said nothing less than a united front of multiple agencies was required to help shut down those operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting the public is a shared responsibility,\u201d Giordano said. \u201cAnd the public is best served when we work together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly 2 million doses of fentanyl and heroin were seized, 54 guns confiscated and 45 people arrested in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-291167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}