Over the course of a five-month period, Syracuse law enforcement made 248 arrests, including 124 gang members, in an initiative to combat gang violence in the city of Syracuse.

Law enforcement officials and Rep. John Katko (R-Syracuse) released the results of “Operation Salt City” at a joint press conference Monday.

The joint effort to fight gang violence and violent crime in the city saw the 248 arrests between May and September of this year. Twenty-two guns, more than $237,000, 70 grams of heroin, 266 grams of cocaine and 723 grams of marijuana — worth a street value of about $44,000 — were also confiscated.

“Operation Salt City” used a combination of federal, state and local law enforcement, including the U.S. Marshal Service and the Syracuse Police Department.

Katko — who was a federal prosecutor prior to serving in the U.S. House of Representatives — discussed the importance of collaborative work across all law enforcement levels.

“This latest endeavor of ‘Operation Salt City’ is just another example of when you do collaborative work together, you can leverage the talents that are very different on different levels and for the good of the society,” Katko said.

He added that his goal moving forward is to make sure that groups like the task force continue to get properly funded.

“We’ve got to continue to fight. It’s never going to be over,” Katko said. “We’ve got to keep fighting. If it were not for these task forces and these efforts, these collaborative efforts between these great law enforcement agencies here in Syracuse, things get much worse than they already are.”

Syracuse Police Department Chief Frank Fowler said the task force will continue its work and added that the different levels of law enforcement have been able to learn from each other over the course of the initiative.

Fowler said there was not a particular gang targeted, but said law enforcement focused on areas impacted by gang violence.

“It’s not only important that we have a group like this, but it’s important that we sustain a group like this,” said Fowler during the press conference. “It’s extremely important, now more than ever, that we have these types of task forces to assist us in our efforts in going after these very dangerous criminals.”

U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of New York David McNulty said the collective goal of the task force has been to simply prevent violent crime.

“The citizens of the city of Syracuse deserve to not only feel safe, but to be safe, no matter what neighborhood they live in,” McNulty said.

Published on September 14, 2015 at 1:02 pm

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