Sarasota Police Operation Ends In Arrest Of 45 Drug Dealers

SARASOTA, FL – A nine-month undercover operation has struck a major blow to drug trafficking in Sarasota with the arrest of 45 hard-core drug dealers, Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino announced at a press conference Friday, March 9.

She said these dealers who were arrested during Operation Four Corners are targeting Sarasota’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, selling drugs at parks and near schools where they put children in danger, DiPino said.

“We are sending a message: We are coming after you and you are not selling drugs in our community,” DiPino said of the arrests for a combined 1,000 felony charges. "They’re pretty darn bold. But guess what? We’re bolder.”

Despite the fact that a number of those arrested have already bonded out of jail, Chief Assistant State Attorney for Sarasota Craig Schaeffer said his office will do everything in its power to make the charges stick when their cases go to court.

“We’ve assigned our best prosecutors to handle these cases,” he said.

DiPino said the city will be seeking maximum sentences, especially for dealers with firearms violations.

“I hope because of the seriousness of the crimes. they’re not going to be back on our streets any time soon,” she said.

As part of an ongoing war on drugs that began five years ago and has resulted in a nearly 30 percent decline in violent crimes in Sarasota, DiPino said she put undercover officers on the streets from April 2017 to January 2018, posing as students, bus boys in restaurants, street vagrants, etc...

“We’ve got undercover officers all over the place so buyer beware,” she said.

DiPino said they were particularly interested in identifying the hard-core drug dealers responsible for importing cocaine, opioids and synthetic drugs into the community from international suppliers and drug cartels.

These hard-core dealers, she said, recruit people to sell drugs who are desperate for money. The street dealers, in turn, target vulnerable buyers with addictions.

She said one of their goals is to get help for these victims of the drug trade.

“We’re getting the buyers into addictions programs and trying to redirect the lives of these low-level street dealers by offering them education and helping them find jobs so they have the opportunity to get out of this life," she said.

The most serious offenders, however, won’t get a helping hand from the city. DiPino said her department is coming down hard on hard-core dealers, particularly those who carry guns.

“We’re going to be ever vigilant, especially when firearms are involved,” she said. “We’re going to get the most serious violations we can. Our hope is that these four corners are going to be free and clear of these drug dealers."

Video via Sarasota Police