The Justice Department announced Friday the results of Operation Spring Cleaning, a nationwide FBI-led effort that resulted in more than 1,100 arrests and the seizure of nearly 1,000 illegal firearms and more than 2,700 pounds of narcotics over the course of three months.
The operation, which took place from March 1 to May 31, took aim at the illegal flow of firearms and drugs connected to gang activity in cities and towns across the country. Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies worked together on nearly 600 search warrants, the DOJ said.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the effort part of a broader commitment to public safety.
“When our neighborhoods are safe from the scourge of deadly drugs, individuals and families can prosper,” Blanche said in a statement. “The Trump Administration has made significant progress in removing this poison from our streets, a key step in our commitment to making America safe again.”
FBI Director Kash Patel offered a similar appraisal of the actions.
“This FBI understands that communities across our country have been ravaged by gangs and the firearms and narcotics they flood our streets with,” Patel said. “Operation Spring Cleaning represents our total commitment to crushing this kind of violent crime and eliminating the criminal networks who facilitate them ... Righteous operations like this show this FBI is only getting started and will continue delivering the most prolific run of crime reduction in U.S. history.”
Specific numbers released by the department showed 1,139 arrests and 615 criminal indictments, as well as 984 firearms seized, with dozens of them equipped with machine-gun conversion devices and more than 75 stand-alone devices.
Agents also found more than 2,700 pounds of illegal drugs, including more than 500 kilograms of cocaine, nearly 700 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 550 pounds of marijuana, nearly 50 kilograms of fentanyl, almost 40 kilograms of heroin, more than 7 kilograms of crack cocaine, and more than 13,200 pills of MDMA.
Patel said the results were part of ongoing FBI anti-crime efforts. He referenced the operation when he announced the launch of “Operation Summer Heat 2.0,” a 95-day follow-up initiative taking aim at predators, drug traffickers, and other threats.
Preliminary FBI data showed a 9.3 percent decrease in violent crime from 2024 to 2025, including an 18.1 percent drop in murders, as well as a separate analysis indicating a 21 percent decrease in the homicide rate across 35 cities.
No specific individual cases or defendant names have been released by the Justice Department. The announcement did include photographs of seizures by FBI field offices in Sacramento and Los Angeles, California, and Philadelphia.
Operation Spring Cleaning is the latest in a series of coordinated federal efforts under the current administration to address street-level narcotics and firearms trafficking.
The initiative is part of a larger pattern of FBI actions that included last year’s Operation Summer Heat, which resulted in thousands of additional arrests and seizures.
The department said the operation’s results would be used to support ongoing prosecutions at the federal, state, and local levels.
