WACO, Texas — More than 200 people were arrested in an operation to get gang members off of the streets of Central Texas, according to a multi-agency news conference held held Wednesday afternoon.
Officials are calling the sting, 'Operation Washout 2.0'.
"I think gang activity in Central Texas and all over Texas and probably the nation continues to be an ongoing problem," said Waco TAG Administrator James Bonewitz.
In the first seven to eight days of the operation, the agencies involved arrested individuals from bloods, crips and tango, amongst other gangs and criminal organizations.
Details of the arrests made during the operation included: 250 total arrests, 28 gang members arrested, 42 firearms seized and a couple murder suspects.
"This is what right looks like," said Texas Department of Public Safety Central Texas Regional Director Todd Snyder. "It's coming together, making our community safe, which is what our citizens expect us to do."
These arrests spanned from Bell, Coryell and McLennan Counties.
Officials say certain areas in counties were targeted. Law enforcement was able to go after individuals because some had warrants. Other arrests were made from traffic stops or tips.
McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara says the 250 arrested are criminals of all kinds and they got as many as they could this time around.
"They're common criminals," he said. "Some of them are your garden variety scumbags that are very well known in the system. Some of them are new, but a lot of them we've known before and have been charged with previous crimes and they're repeat offenders."
McNamara says this type of work isn't something a lone agency can do on their own and it was a great team success.
"It's not anything that one agency can do," he added. "We've got to have a combined effort and we have to have support of our good citizens."
We've been hearing about this gang problem in Central Texas for a while now. In September, the Killeen police chief said two recent shootings there were gang related.
Chief Charles Kimble told 6 News Wednesday that 'Operation Washout 2.0' helped defund gang activity by taking some illegal activity of his streets.
Kimble couldn't comment if the gang related activity cases were closed but he did say there are lots of connections that have been shut down because of this sting.
Kimble did say those participating in gang activity are making their solvability rate low.
"I'll be the first to tell you as a police chief, our solvability rate is an issue," he said. "We have to count on a lot of crimes when I have bad guys hurting bad guys and the witnesses are bad guys; it's hard to get people to cooperate."
But, work like 'Operation Washout 2.0' is helping the problem.
"I think anytime that we could take illegal weapons and drugs off the street, it's a win for the good guys," Kimble added.
He, along with other law enforcement leaders, say this is a win for Central Texas. A message echoed from all the law enforcement leaders at Wednesday's press conference: this isn't a one time crack down and they aren't slowing down anytime soon.
"This was a targeted operation for two weeks, but this is the type of work that our men and women in law enforcement go out and do each and every day," said Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian.
6 News reporter Baylee Bates live tweeted during the entire conference. View the tweets below.
The following agencies were apart of the operation:
- Texas Department of Public Safety Central Texas Regional Director Todd Snyder
- Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Robert Garmon
- BATFE RAC Brian Garner
- Coryell County Sheriff Scott Williams
- McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara
- Killeen Police Chief Charles Kimble
- Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian
Waco TAG Administrator James Bonewitz
In October 2019, Central Texas official competed Operation Washout, where more than 100 people were arrested in McLennan County.