Law enforcement officials arrested 215 people in San Antonio over the last three months as part of a 90-day operation to reduce gang violence on the East Side.
The San Antonio Police Department announced on Monday they had concluded the sting earlier this week, dubbed “Operation Triple Beam,” which began in September.
“The operation resulted in 215 arrests, to include 40 federal fugitives. Over 70 firearms were seized, over $176,000 in drug value were seized, $233,000 in currency was seized, and 51 sex offender compliance checks were completed,” said SAPD Assistant Chief James Flavin in a press conference on Monday.
The multi-agency operation included SAPD, the U.S. Marshals Lone Star Fugitive Task Force, Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. SAPD and the sheriff’s office received approximately $90,000 in federal funding to conduct the operation.
Flavin said they had arrested several members of “some of the most violent gangs in San Antonio.”
“Anytime you get those kind of results — if you look at the numbers alone, that’s pretty significant for an operation like that, so yeah, we’re happy,” Flavin told the Current.
The department will kick off a different operation, called the “Texas Anti-Gang Program,” combining federal, state and local agencies to address gang violence in San Antonio starting on January 1, Flavin said.
Earlier this year, SAPD was awarded $3.125 million by the U.S. Department of Justice to expand "community-oriented policing," a sum which City Council agreed to match, meaning approximately $12 million will go into community policing over the next four years. The money is expected to go toward fighting gang-related gun violence and other violent crimes across the city.
