30+ ARRESTED IN WEST VOLUSIA DRUG SWEEP; MORE EXPECTED
Operation Deal Breaker targets street-level drugs sales, including open drug deals near children’s bus stops
More than 30 suspects involved in street-level drug sales were put behind bars this week as Volusia Sheriff’s Office deputies and detectives fanned out across West Volusia to finish off a long-term narcotics operation that started this summer. More arrests are imminent, and Sheriff Mike Chitwood said more of these operations are on the way.
Targeting street-level drug sales, Operation Deal Breaker brought the heat into several areas where the Sheriff’s Office has received citizen complaints about drug activity, and where drug deals have been witnessed taking place near schools, parks and bus stops. In some cases, children getting off their school bus in DeLand were walking past drug deals happening a few feet away.
“To the drug dealers who want to use our streets as their own open-air drug markets, and drag down the quality of life for the honest, hard-working people of these neighborhoods, just know that we’re coming after you,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “We’re not going to let up. You’re not going to know when we’re coming next, but we’re coming.”
The operation resulted in arrest warrants for a long list suspects identified through a series of undercover drug purchases in West Volusia. Early Thursday, members of the West Volusia Narcotics Task Force and Deltona Narcotics Enforcement Team set out with search warrants and arrest warrants. Detectives conducted a reverse drug sale operation in the 1000 block of South Clara Avenue in Deland.
The search warrants resulted in the seizure of:
• 3 handguns
• 1 stolen motorcycle
• 14 grams of fentanyl
• 14.4 grams of heroin
• 36 grams of crack cocaine
• 23.5 grams of meth
• 31 Dilaudid pills
• 36.5 Oxycodone pills
• 38 Xanax pills
• 1 gram of morphine