DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Dozens of Volusia County drug operation suspects are either in custody or close to it.
News 6 rode along side Daytona Beach police on Thursday as they searched properties to find 32 suspects in their investigation dubbed “Operation Ice Breaker.”
The department’s SWAT team and officers were briefed early in the morning before setting out to 11 different properties to serve search and arrest warrants.
“I’m very proud of our organization,” Chief Jakari Young said. “This is a big deal for us. They’ve spent a lot of time away from their families, and all of it is culminating this morning.”
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After Young’s briefing, the crews were off. The police at many of the homes forced their way in and worked for hours to capture as many suspects as they could.
“This is a matter of life and death. We have people that are dying on a daily basis due to these pedal pushers, these folks that are out here peddling this poison and killing people. This is all part of the opioid crisis, so getting these folks off of the street is huge,” Chief Young said.
After all the properties were searched, Chief Young shared some of the results his team was able to get — including 430.2 grams of fentanyl.
“It’s important to highlight it only takes 0.1 grams of fentanyl to overdose,” he said.
That was on top of meth, weed, pills, cocaine, five cars, money, and 17 guns the police seized in this investigation.
The chief said several of the addresses we went to today had been the center of complaints from residents for months.
“A lot of these addresses we hit today were the subject of multiple complaints and I want to let the Daytona Beach community know that we hear you, we hear you and I hope today will give you some relief but I want you to know that we’re not going to stop,” he said.
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