Raid's aim: Illegal guns, drugs

Launching one of Omaha's largest crackdowns on street violence required seven months and more than 200 undercover operations.

Authorities spied on and set up firearms deals with alleged drug traffickers and other people buying weapons for convicted felons.

They collected enough evidence to implicate nearly 60 people on a variety of federal and state criminal charges that haven't been released.

Traps laid for months began tripping at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Morning commuters watched heavily armed federal agents in green paramilitary garb cling to the sides of a gray assault wagon that led an 11-vehicle convoy from 30th Street and Ames Avenue to the first target. Neighbors awoke to the sounds of stun grenades and barking police dogs.

More than 100 federal agents and Omaha police SWAT officers barreled into buildings across the city and in Council Bluffs, part of the first blow in a larger effort aimed at sharply reducing violent crime across the metropolitan area.

Tuesday marked the public debut for the new elite task force of Omaha police officers and federal agents set up to aggressively counter the proliferation of illegal guns. Some 70 firearms were seized in the effort, as well as roughly $50,000 worth of illegal drugs.

The day's events were just a beginning, authorities said.

"If you're out doing that kind of stuff, eventually we're going to be knocking on your door," said Omaha Police Chief Alex Hayes. "This new task force is evidence of what can be accomplished by combining local and federal resources. We've got people dedicated to the task, and the task isn't over yet."

City Councilman Ben Gray, who is involved in gang intervention efforts, said he would like to know more about the investigation and who was arrested.

Still, he said, the initial police account, particularly the number of weapons seized, suggested that it was impressive.

"If they took 70 guns off the street, that's a good day. That's a really good day," Gray said.

An ATF official said court records would soon reveal federal and state charges against 55 people from the sting. Charges will include illegal firearm possession and drug trafficking. Many of the federal indictments are set to be unsealed Wednesday.

Authorities said the 55 — not all of whom had been captured — tallied a combined 52 felony and 151 misdemeanor convictions. Those not yet in custody were considered fugitives, and authorities continued the search Tuesday night.

Federal authorities say many of the captured, if convicted, could face mandatory-minimum prison terms of three to 10 years. Most of the federal defendants will make their first appearances in U.S. District Court in Omaha this week. Others will be prosecuted on state-level charges by the Douglas County Attorney's Office.

County Attorney Don Kleine said he expected his office to handle 25 to 30 cases, though there is a chance that charges could be filed against others once the raids are complete.

By 9 a.m., one of two deployed tactical teams raided two houses in northeast Omaha. Explosions and smoke wafted through a neighborhood near 29th Street and Camden Avenue as the team broke into a home and hauled several people out.

Commotion from the raid roused several neighbors from their beds. Observers gawked from porches and sidewalks.

"I was sleeping in the living room, and I heard a boom and then another boom. I thought it was gunshots, so I got on the floor," said Jeremiah Williams, 14, who lives nearby.

Jeremiah looked out the window to see officers pull several people from the raided house in cuffs. One was a man reportedly wanted by federal authorities. Jeremiah said he expected officers to go door-to-door asking questions, but none did.

Another neighbor said he'd noticed a lot of people coming in and out of the house all summer.

Meanwhile, eight smaller teams of federal and local law officers traveled the city in search of other fugitives, searches that yielded mixed results.

Hayes said the task force was an important tool to send a message to criminals that illegal gun and drug dealing will not be tolerated.

Authorities won't discuss the task force's exact size. But they will say it's largely composed of police investigators deputized by U.S. marshals and tabbed to work for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Mickey Leadingham, resident agent in charge of the region's ATF office, said Tuesday's operation was the task force's "first swing of the bat."

The program allows ATF to effectively expand its ranks with local experts who know the city's terrain, authorities said. Local officers who once had to hand off federal cases and investigations to federal authorities can now pursue the cases themselves.

"It dovetails into everything we are trying to do to make our community safer, the interaction with different agencies involved in combating those trafficking narcotics and guns," Kleine said. "It's about doing whatever we can to keep our neighborhoods safe and go after the people that disrupt those neighborhoods."

World-Herald staff writer Emerson Clarridge contributed to this report.

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