KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Northland law enforcement is cracking down on suspected drug offenders.
Called “Operation Twilight”, the special enforcement effort early Friday morning involves as many as eight northland law enforcement agencies. Included are the Clay County Sheriff’s Department and officers from Kansas City, Missouri, Liberty, North Kansas City, Excelsior Springs, Gladstone and Smithville police departments.
The officers are executing secret indictments as part of a long-term undercover investigation. Officers say 33 defendants have been charged in the investigation.
Officers took 18 people into custody from those 33 indictments and arrested five additional people. Three of those five people will likely face drug charges and almost everyone arrested today will likely face time in jail.
In addition to the arrests, deputies are serving search warrants on 3 suspected drug houses.
"It's good thing," said Lt. Stephen Wright of the Clay County Sheriff's Department. "It's a good thing to get these people off of the streets and to have room in the jail to get them into."
Wright also says an operation like this isn't without danger.
"You always get just a little nervous," Wright says. "The people in these houses could be high on drugs. They could have weapons. There could be a meth lab in the house. But there is also a little bit of excitement that you are getting these people off of the street."
Wright says information from the secret indictments for the remaining defendants will be entered into the computer system accessible by officers nationwide. That means anytime one of these defendants is stopped by a law enforcement officer, indictments from Operation Twilight will appear and that person will be arrested.
Before Friday's sweep, three defendants were already found out of town in Idaho, Florida, and Columbia, Missouri.
Wright says with the help of other departments across the country, he fully expects all the defendants to be found within a few days.
