CLEVELAND — A task force led by the Cleveland Division of Police and FBI conducted an operation on Tuesday, May 14, that resulted in one of the county’s largest drug seizures, according to a post on the city’s website.

What You Need To Know

  • A task force led by the Cleveland Division of Police and FBI resulted in an operation on Tuesday, May 14, that resulted in one of the county’s largest drug seizures

  • The Cartel Gang Narcotics & Laundering Task Force seized, as the results of a six-month investigation, almost 150 pounds of “suspected fentanyl pills and powder” along with multiple guns, a pill manufacturing machine and more
  • The search and arrest warrants took place in Highland Heights, Westlake and Cleveland’s second, third and fifth districts

The Cartel Gang Narcotics & Laundering Task Force seized in this operation, as the results of a six-month investigation, almost 150 pounds of “suspected fentanyl pills and powder” along with multiple guns, a pill manufacturing machine and more. They also arrested two people.

“Final evidence totals are pending laboratory analysis, but investigators estimate nearly 600,000 dangerous counterfeit oxycodone Blue-M30 fentanyl pills were recovered, with an estimated street value amount of 9.5 million dollars,” the post on the city’s website reads.

The search and arrest warrants took place in Highland Heights, Westlake and Cleveland’s second, third and fifth districts.

The post states that this task force also worked with various other agencies including “the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors Office and agencies with the Cleveland Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)- Strike Force.”

They also cite the assistance of various SWAT units from the Cleveland police, FBI and Southwest Enforcement Bureau as well as the Cleveland Police NICE Unit, the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force and the ATF Violent Gun Crime Task Force.

“The Cartel Gang Narcotics & Laundering Task Force (CGNL) is a long-standing multiagency major crimes task force composed of over 38 investigators and analysts from multiple federal, state and local agencies,” the post reads. “The CGNL Task Force is led in partnership by the Cleveland Division of Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”