Guns, drugs, counterfeit goods seized in Operation Rolling Thunder

This year’s Operation Rolling Thunder resulted in more arrests and drug and money seizures than last year’s enforcement blitz, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said Friday.

The weeklong operation in Spartanburg County brought together 21 law enforcement agencies from across the state. Deputies focused heavily on areas of interstates 85 and 26 during the crackdown on criminal activity, particularly drug dealing.

“We’re not going to win the war on drugs, but we’re not going to stop trying,” Wright said. “I don’t care what the people in Colorado or Columbia say.”

Rolling Thunder, which typically takes place during the fall, was moved up on the calendar to keep the schedule from becoming predictable to criminals, Wright said.

Only 13 agencies participated in last year's operation due to flood relief efforts in the Midlands and Lowcountry in October.

Wright said that with the additional manpower this year, there were five times as many felony arrests — 15 this week, compared with three in October — and more than four times as much marijuana seized, 122 pounds this week, compared with 30 pounds in October. He said there were also nearly three times as many vehicle searches, 130 this week compared with 45 in October.

The agencies "come and give Spartanburg County a whole week of work,” Wright said. “Everybody that participated in it helped Spartanburg County stay safer."

Sheriff’s Office Lt. Kevin Bobo said that while this year’s haul didn’t produce anything as attention-grabbing as the mobile abortion clinic found last year, getting so many drugs off the street was a worthy endeavor.

Of the arrests and citations, 489, or 41.8 percent, were to white drivers; 411, or 35.2 percent, were to African-American drivers; 165, or 14.1 percent, were to Hispanic drivers; and 104, or 8.9 percent, were to drivers of other races.

Deputies seized eight guns, along with hundreds of counterfeit belts, shirts, jeans, sandals, purses and sunglasses.

A total of 363 cartons of cigarettes and 203 credit cards were also seized, the data showed.

Each seized item will be marked as evidence, Wright said.

He said once all items have been processed, the drugs will be destroyed, the money will be split among the participating law enforcement agencies and the guns will either be destroyed or added to the Sheriff’s Office supply.

“It’s money that won’t be used to buy dope and guns used to hurt us,” he said.

While Rolling Thunder is a high-profile event, Wright said efforts to prevent illegal activities are ongoing throughout the year.

“Dope and money and stolen stuff is always going to be a theme,” he said. “We’re going to work hard to get bad guys off the street."

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 6:51 PM with the headline "Guns, drugs, counterfeit goods seized in Operation Rolling Thunder."