'Operation Clean the Street' in Timmonsville landed three people in jail facing drug charges in an extensive investigation.
The operation was a joint investigation with the Florence County Sheriff's Office and the Timmonsville Police Dept.
“I promised the community that once I took over. I would make this community as safe as close as possible. Won’t tolerate drugs. Or gun violence in this town. So, this is the first example of what is to come here. I want to thank the Florence County Sheriffs' office for aiding and assisting in that fight. It won’t be Mayberry. But we will get it as close as we can to it," said Timmonsville Police Chief Thomas McFadden.
McFadden said the nearly year-long investigation yielded good results.
He added in addition to arresting people, they seized drugs and weapons.
“We want to be proactive, not reactive. You see something, you say something. Like I said, we just made the arrest on yesterday, that house was shot. And that was another incident from drugs. So, we want to rid this community of all of these drug houses and crack houses. You doing that in this town, we don’t want it in here. The citizens around here want to live in peace and harmony," said McFadden.
Timmonsville police and the Florence County SWAT raided three houses early Tuesday morning.
The houses were in different parts of town, including Hill Street, North Warren Street and Green Street.
“This is the result of an ongoing investigation that came to fruition now. The time is right to go ahead and execute the arrest and search warrant. And that’s what we did this morning," said Major Michael Nunn with the Florence County Sheriff's Office.
Nunn said they brought a good bit of officers to ensure that the officers and community members would be safe.
“The amount of manpower used to serve these types of warrants. Is determined by the risk to the community and the officers. We go through a very rigorous analysis of what we are dealing with. And we try to pair our use of force. With the risk of our officers," said Nunn.
Some people said they're thankful officers did something to put a dent in all of the illegal drug activity in Timmonsville.
McFadden said this isn't the last raid, but they'll be more before the year is out.
“I know some people may be upset that they didn’t get picked up in this first wave. Tell them they don’t have to worry. We didn’t get them this time. We will get them the next time," said McFadden.
More information will be released later Tuesday afternoon.