September 2, 2010

GALVESTON - A contingent of Narcotics Agents from the Galveston Police Department, Drug Enforcement Administration and Brazoria County Sheriff's Office conducted a drug sweep in the eastern section of Galveston Thursday afternoon and evening.

The 'buy bust' called "Operation Freeze" targeted street level drug dealers and involved 22 officers from the various agencies.

Lt. Jorge Trevino, Commander of the East Island Patrol Unit, said much of the intelligence gathered relative to the sweep was gathered by uniformed patrol officers interacting with residents in their patrol districts.  He credits the success of these grass roots police operations to the community policing concept initiated by the administration of Police Chief Charles Wiley.

Officer Tom Maffei, the mission coordinator, said the sweep came about after receiving numerous complaints from residents in the area of 26th Street and Avenue K.  Residents complained of transient drug users and street level drug dealers and cited an increase in trafficking of crack cocaine in the neighborhoods.

During a pre-operation briefing at police headquarters, Maffei lined out specific procedures and assignments for the teams of officers who then deployed throughout the targeted area communicating with each other on a confidential radio channel.

Once a drug buy was made and the seller arrested, they were taken to a staging area where they were fingerprinted and processed by a team of officers designated for that specific purpose.  Following processing the prisoners were transported to the Galveston County Jail where they were booked in.

Operation 'Freeze' was carried out "like a well oiled machine" commented Sgt. Aaron Ausmus, GPD Narcotics Division Supervisor.