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FIRST ON FOX: More than 550 arrests have been made in the nation’s capital amid President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown that began earlier in August, including officials recovering illegal firearms and removing drugs from the streets, photos shared with Fox News Digital show.
Local police and federal law enforcement officers in the city have made more than 550 arrests since Aug. 7, including the apprehensions of three known gangbangers, one of whom was an MS-13 member, according to White House data provided Wednesday to Fox News Digital.
“Thanks to President Trump’s bold actions to Make DC Safe Again, more than 550 dangerous criminals have been removed from the streets of our nation’s capital,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News Digital Wednesday of the arrests.
“While the Fake News tried to sell a lie that D.C. was safe, these arrests reveal the truth,” she continued. “Hundreds of violent criminals have been arrested by federal law enforcement agents for carrying illegal weapons, distributing deadly drugs, committing armed robbery, and having ties to dangerous gangs like MS-13. President Trump is making DC safe again by enforcing the law and everyday Americans support his commonsense, tough-on-crime policies.”
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Tuesday evening’s sweep of the city included 91 arrests, Fox News Digital learned, including 25 arrests of illegal aliens. Many of the illegal aliens arrested had prior criminal histories, according to the White House, including multiple illegal reentries, and a threat to kidnap or injure a person, destruction of property, burglary, possession of drugs and driving while intoxicated.
68 DC SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN SINGLE NIGHT AS WHITE HOUSE TOUTS TRUMP’S PUSH TO ‘CLEAN UP’ CAPITAL CITY
The White House exclusively shared photos of items recovered during the Tuesday arrests, which included a backpack teeming with baggies of confirmed illegal substances, handguns and a knife.
The White House told Fox News Digital that law enforcement has removed substances stretching from marijuana, cocaine, meth and fentanyl from D.C. streets since the crime crackdown began Aug. 7.
All in, law enforcement recovered eight illegal firearms Tuesday evening, and made arrests for crimes such as an assault on a police officer, armed robbery, carrying a pistol without license, assault with deadly weapon, driving under the influence and for outstanding arrest warrants related to “Child Abuse (Death)” and involuntary manslaughter charges.
HUNDREDS ARRESTED AS TRUMP’S WASHINGTON, DC, CRIME CRACKDOWN HITS FULL STRIDE
A total of 48 homeless encampments across the city have been removed as of Wednesday, Fox News Digital learned.
Trump federalized the Washington, D.C. police department Aug. 11 amid a trend of high-profile attacks and killings in the city following the wild crime trends that erupted in the U.S.’ notoriously bloody year of 2020. The more than 550 arrests are part of Trump’s March executive order, which established the Making D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, ahead of the president federalizing the city in August.
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Hundreds of National Guard members, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department and personnel from federal agencies, such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Capitol Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, have taken to the streets of D.C. to conduct sweeps and root out crime. The National Guard is not making arrests, but is assisting law enforcement with deterring crime and protecting the city.
There were more than 1,950 law enforcement officials who took part in Tuesday night’s sweeps and arrests, Fox News Digital learned. The crackdown is anticipated to continue heating up, including the U.S. Marshals Service offering $500 rewards to individuals who are able to provide tips that lead to arrests.
Democrats have slammed Trump over the federalization of the city’s police department, claiming crime data show violence is trending downward.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s crime data is currently under Department of Justice investigation in response to claims the force manipulated the data to produce more favorable crime trends in recent months, Fox News reported Tuesday.
SCOOP: TRUMP’S NEWEST DC CRIME CRACKDOWN YIELDS MORE THAN 100 ARRESTS
Trump had threatened to federalize the D.C. police department in the weeks leading up to his final decision, citing a handful of high-profile crimes that have rocked the city, including the fatal shooting of 21-year-old congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym in June; the fatal shooting of a pair of Israeli embassy staffers in May; and a brutal attack on a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer earlier in August.
Trump championed the crime crackdown in a press conference Aug. 11, when he first announced he would federalize the local police department under section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which allows the president to assume emergency control of the capital’s police force for 30 days.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump said Aug. 11. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore. We’re not going to take it.”
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