A total of 65 people across South Florida were arrested during a monthlong Federal Bureau of Investigation effort targeting violent offenders, dubbed “Operation Viper,” with Fort Lauderdale seeing the highest number of arrests in the region.
The FBI’s Rapid Deployment Team was integrated with local law enforcement agencies and members of the South Florida Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force from mid-May through late June in neighborhoods of Broward County and Miami-Dade County, FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The operation, a national effort in which FBI Miami was the first to participate, resulted in 60 arrests on state charges, five arrests on federal charges and the seizure of 21 guns, including two that had been modified to be fully automatic weapons and could shoot as many as 1,200 rounds per minute. Skiles said the “worst offenders” in the “worst neighborhoods” were the people that law enforcement focused on building cases against.
“You can arrest 60 people but not have much of an impact,” Skiles said. “If you arrest the right 60 people, the right 65 people, it has a tremendous impact. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Sixteen people were arrested in Fort Lauderdale within a three-day span before Memorial Day weekend, said Police Chief William Schultz, the most arrests out of any city in the operation, which included Pembroke Pines and Miramar in Broward County and Miami Beach, Miami, Miami Gardens and unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County.
Some of those arrested in Fort Lauderdale were wanted for charges of armed robbery, burglary, grand theft, drug trafficking and firearm offenses, Schultz said. Another Fort Lauderdale case involved suspects from Romania who were sought under an FBI national alert for fraud and forgery.
At least two of those arrested were members of a gang who are also homicide suspects, Miami Gardens Police Assistant Chief Joseph Nargiso said. Miami Police Department Chief Manuel Morales said among their arrests were members of a criminal enterprise that began in Little Haiti and has expanded to other parts of South Florida.
The FBI and the local police departments did not identify any of those arrested during the operation.
Throughout the rest of the year, Operation Viper will be carried out in other cities across the country, Skiles said.
