Yesterday morning, the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force began a roundup operation to find and arrest 34 individuals indicted on drug charges.
By 2 p.m., police had arrested 15 people, including five juveniles.
No University students were among the suspects.
"We just started this morning, so it may take up to a week to find them all," said Lt. Bryant Bibb of the JADE Task Force.
Officers are going to known addresses and places of employment to find the suspects, Bibb said.
This roundup marks the culmination of operation "Quiet Streets," a six-month undercover operation designed to target open-air drug markets in several parts of Charlottesville.
"Open-air markets are places where drugs are being dealt in plain view," Charlottesville Police Sgt. Mike Farruggio said. "Sometimes it's a park or a section of sidewalk ... and most commonly, it's dealers with cocaine or marijuana."
Since the operation began in October of last year, JADE undercover agents purchased crack cocaine and marijuana from 34 suspects.
They also seized about 337 grams of cocaine, with a street value of $67,000, and 392 grams of marijuana, with a street value of $4,000.
"We run these operations pretty routinely," Bibb said. "This is a good number of people for this type of roundup ... on the high end."
Drugs are "a significant problem in Charlottesville," he said.
Ultimately, nine of the suspects were indicted in federal court and 18 in state court. Seven of the suspects are juveniles.
Those suspects who were brought up on state charges are accused of dealing drugs on the street level, involving sales of about $20, which will buy 1/10 of a gram of cocaine, Bibb said. The others may have dealt in larger quantities.
The suspects face charges including distribution of cocaine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, distribution of imitation cocaine and distribution of marijuana.
Dealers fabricate imitation cocaine out of "something similar in size and appearance to crack cocaine and then use it to rip off their buyers," Farruggio said.
"It could be soap, sheet rock or bread soaked in Ambisol and put in the microwave," he said.
Most of the 15 arrested individuals are in jail, but one posted bond, Bibb said. They now await trial. The penalties they face depend on their prior records.
"If they have no record, they may get no time. The others may face sentences ranging from six months up to many years," he said.
Investigators from the Charlottesville, Albemarle and University police departments, as well as the Virginia State Police and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration make up the JADE Task Force.
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