NEWS
RELEASE
For Immediate Release
January 5, 2006
Contact: Michele Nicholson
Public Information Officer
(850) 651-7420
OPERATION
HARD ROCK
The
Okaloosa County
Sheriff
’s Office has started a round-up of known narcotics violators that will rank
as one of the largest, if not THE largest drug sweep, in the agency’s history.
Okaloosa
Sheriff
Charlie Morris says the undercover operation began in July 2005. To date
there are 68 warrants issued for forty separate individuals who range in age
from 15 to 60. Virtually all charges revolve around the sale of cocaine.
In an effort to target street-level dealers, investigators used undercover
agents – who were able to openly purchase crack cocaine at all times of the
day and night in the
Cypress Street
area of
Sylvania
Heights
. The operation also targeted the Heatherington area off
Racetrack Road
and the
Carson Drive
vicinity in
Fort Walton Beach
.
Sheriff
Morris says the goal of this large operation is to clean-up hot spots of drug
activity, so that law-abiding residents can work alongside deputies to try to
recapture their neighborhoods.
He credits the agency’s Problem-Oriented Policing Squad, Multi-Agency Drug
Task Force, and K-9 Unit for months of hard work – but says the agency is also
grateful for the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), State
Attorney’s Office, Niceville Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms, and the
U.S.
Marshals Service.
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