DOJ Says St. Louis Federal Surge Led to 435 Arrests, Seized 166 Guns

The Justice Department says a months-long federal operation in St. Louis resulted in 435 arrests and the seizure of 166 illegal firearms, 80 kilograms of drugs and more than $1 million in cash, officials announced Thursday as they declared the effort complete.

Operation Show Me Justice began in August and combined the U.S. Marshals Service, ATF, DEA and the St. Louis Police Department in a joint push against guns, drugs and other crime in the city.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter announced the operation’s conclusion alongside Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.

“Through Operation Show Me Justice, the teams have arrested 435 for drug crimes, firearm crimes, other crimes. That includes 412 outstanding warrant arrests. Most of these individuals already had outstanding warrants for arrest. Many of them had multiple,” McCotter told reporters.

Among the seizures were six machine gun conversion devices, according to McCotter.

McCotter used the news conference to call on local and state officials elsewhere in the country to request similar federal partnerships, framing the results as evidence that high crime rates are not something cities must simply tolerate.

“The mission here rests on a simple premise, which is we don’t have to accept violent crime. It’s not something you have to shrug your shoulders at. It is not a fact of life in a city or anywhere else,” McCotter said.

“I want to say something to all the mayors, the city councils, governors, police chiefs who are out there watching now: Violence is not inevitable. We want to partner with you. We want to work with you. We want to help you,” he added.

St. Louis joins Washington, D.C., and Memphis as cities where federal authorities have teamed with state and local law enforcement on comparable surge operations this year.

The announcement comes about a week after federal and California authorities concluded Operation Save Skid Row in Los Angeles, executing 28 arrest warrants and 44 search warrants aimed at drug distribution networks in the Skid Row neighborhood, using more than 100 law enforcement vehicles and targeting members of gangs including the Main Street Crips, the Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips and the Pueblo Bishop Bloods.

“We are no longer going to have open-air drug markets in the United States, let alone on Skid Row,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said at a news conference announcing that operation. “And that is the reason you see so many homeless people who are experiencing psychotic episodes, who are unwell, they aren’t seeking help, it’s because you have people, like the drug dealers we are arresting today, keeping them addicted and taking their public assistance money to pay for their drugs.”