LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Hundreds of people were arrested across Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia as a result of Operation Crystal Mountain, the Drug Enforcement Administration said in a news release Tuesday.
The operation, which was aimed at stopping the creation and distribution of meth across the three states, seized more than 800 pounds of the drug over the course of multiple months.
Law enforcement also collected 52 firearms and large amounts of heroin, fentanyl and other illicit drugs during the operation, along with more than $800,000 in cash, according to the release.
Federal agents arrested 235 people on federal drug-related charges while an additional 140 people were arrested by state or local agencies on state-level drug charges.
Of the federal arrests that resulted from the operation, the vast majority were in Tennessee, with 155 people being arrested, compared with 60 in Kentucky and 20 in West Virginia, according to the DEA.
The amount of meth collected from the states was more comparable, with 317 pounds from Tennessee, 360 pounds from Kentucky and 132 pounds from West Virginia.
The DEA said its agents from the agency's Louisville Field Division started working with state and local law enforcement agents in January to carry out the operation to "target Mexican drug cartels, drug trafficking organizations and other individuals involved in the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine."
D. Christopher Evans, the special agent in charge of the Louisville Division Office, said in the release that the opioid crisis is not the only drug problem worth focusing on.
"The amount of drugs and weapons we’ve taken off the street with this operation, along with the number of drug dealers that we’ve locked up, represents a small victory in our on-going fight for safer communities for us all,” Evans said. “While America’s opioid crisis may dominate headlines, Operation Crystal Mountain should serve as a reminder that methamphetamine is a problem that has never gone away."
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