Since Thursday, the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force arrested five more people previously indicted for dealing drugs. The arrests bring the number of suspects apprehended to 21 out of 34 indicted in JADE's Operation Quiet Streets.
Officers expect to locate and arrest the rest of the indicted suspects soon, said Lt. Bryant Bibb of JADE. "We're finding them pretty regularly."
Quiet Streets was a six-month undercover operation designed to shut down open-air drug markets in Charlottesville. In the investigation, undercover JADE officers purchased crack cocaine and marijuana from 34 dealers.
JADE runs undercover operations like Quiet Streets every year, Charlottesville Police Sgt. Dennis Dean said. Quiet Streets "was more or less an average operation we run on a continual basis," Dean said.
Operation Quiet Streets will have a "significant impact on the streets for some time," Bibb said. He added new dealers will replace those arrested and the drug trade will rebound. "We never stop."
Suspects from Quiet Streets were indicted on state and federal charges of distribution of cocaine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, distribution of imitation cocaine and distribution of marijuana.
Officers have also seized about 337 grams of cocaine, with a street value of about $67,000, and 392 grams of marijuana, with a street value of about $4,000.
JADE, which has been in operation since 1995, consists of 15 officers from the Charlottesville, Albemarle, University and Virginia State police departments.
Charlottesville's rate of drug dealing is "about average" for a city of its size, Bibb said. However, most small cities don't put as much emphasis on fighting drugs as Charlottesville, he said.
Crack and marijuana are by far the most popular drugs in Charlottesville, although ecstasy arrests are on the rise, he added.
Three University students and six former University students were arrested in November 2000 after a year-long JADE undercover operation. The students were charged with possession and distribution of ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine and LSD.
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