Savannah area police have arrested at least 18 people for conspiring to move over a million dollars of cocaine a month onto city streets.
The police operation started with a routine traffic stop that led to a chase and was still going on during a news conference when drug cops abruptly left the room on word of another suspect's whereabouts. Savannah-Chatham Counter Narcotics Team Commander Roy Harrison says, the bust represents a complex and multi-agency untangling of "mid-level" dealers.
"These folks were involved in bringing it in and they do what's called stepping on the drugs to add something to it really to boost their profit," Harrison said. "When you're interrupting this the street level dealers can't get as much of the drug out to sell."
Police seized cash, drugs, vehicles and guns, but acknowledge those arrested represented just one of many area drug operations. The problem, said one officer, is that other dealers will move into their places.
The police operation started with a routine traffic stop that led to a chase and was still going on during a news conference when drug cops abruptly left the room on word of another suspect's whereabouts. Savannah-Chatham Counter Narcotics Team Commander Roy Harrison says, the bust represents a complex and multi-agency untangling of "mid-level" dealers.
"These folks were involved in bringing it in and they do what's called stepping on the drugs to add something to it really to boost their profit," Harrison said. "When you're interrupting this the street level dealers can't get as much of the drug out to sell."
Police seized cash, drugs, vehicles and guns, but acknowledge those arrested represented just one of many area drug operations. The problem, said one officer, is that other dealers will move into their places.
