HIGHLAND – Over 100 people were arrested in a Friday night raid that combined several law enforcement agencies converging upon the city on June 13.
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies took part in the multiple agency tactic that was dubbed a SMASH operation. There were 102 people arrested on charges ranging from probation violations to out-of-compliance sex offenders, burglary, drug possession and weapons violations in the San Bernardino Movement Against Street Hoodlums (SMASH).
Highland, a city of 54,000 in population, rests in the county between San Bernardino and Redlands. Some 80 officers in 40 squad cars from agencies throughout San Bernardino County took part in the operation, which took place just before 3 p.m. and lasted until just before midnight, according to reports.
Officers stopped a suspected drunk driver and arrested a female passenger on a petty theft charge in Victorville. A potential drug deal was snuffed by officers who arrested two men, having discovered syringes inside a car one of the men had been sitting in. State police stopped a man riding his bicycle, arresting him with a glass pipe and suspected methamphetamine in his pocket.
A normal Friday night patrol, said law enforcement officials, includes four to five deputies on duty, unable to make contact with that many violators. The sweep was termed “extremely successful,” according to Highland law enforcement officials.
It was the fourth SMASH sweep conducted by county deputies this year, but this one led to more arrests than the other three, according to the sheriff’s department. “The primary goal of the operation,” said one law enforcement official, “was to target and identify gang members within the city of Highland.” Prisoners were taken, in chains binding their wrists and waists, in vans to county jails from the Highland station on Baseline St.
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Redlands Daily Facts: 102 arrested in SMASH operation
