A four-month undercover operation targeting street-level drug dealers in East Village resulted in 30 indictments naming a total of 41 defendants, San Diego police and the District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

The sting, dubbed “Operation Red Beard,” focused on an area of about three blocks by four blocks, a roughly one-mile stretch from Petco Park east to Interstate 5. The operation ran from April to August.

“Earlier this year, illegal drug dealing was rampant” in that area, District Attorney Summer Stephan said at a news conference Friday, flanked by prosecutors and police, including Police Chief David Nisleit.

The spot, Stephan noted, “has been notorious as a drug dealing hub for several years.” By April, it was getting worse, she said. Complaints flowed in from residents, with stories Stephan called “really heartbreaking.”


She said neighbors “felt like they could not feel safe looking out the window for fear of observing a drug deal and becoming a potential witness, or being looked at as a snitch.”

There were drug-dealers by the dozens. Stephan called it “a small army.”

About the time the baseball season started this year, so did Operation Red Beard.

“The primary objective was to identify criminals who were responsible for selling illegal narcotics, and preying upon individuals combating addiction,” Nisleit said.


Over four months, undercover San Diego police officers made drug buys on the streets. Imperial Avenue was a hot spot, with 10 buys over three months, according to a map provided by the District Attorney’s Office. So was 17th Street, with 12 deals in just over three weeks.

Sixteenth Street saw 16 illegal sales during the operation, the lion’s share happening in April and May.

The target area has a large, concentrated homeless population. Homeless drug addicts were common customers, authorities said.


The transactions ranged from a small amount of drugs, most often methamphetamine, up to about 3 grams.

Undercover officers bought meth, cocaine and heroin, but did not find any with fentanyl, which has been grabbing headlines in recent years.

County officials have warned the public that counterfeit pills, likely sold to users who believe the pills are prescription oxycodone, are a main cause of a spike in fentanyl-related deaths.

The undercover drug buys stemming from Operation Red Beard wrapped up in August. By the end of October, a grand jury handed up 30 indictments targeting the 41 defendants. As of Friday, 32 of them had been arrested.


About half the defendants did not give police a home address, which could suggest they are homeless.

According to Stephan, about 70 percent of the arrested defendants have felony records, and nearly a third of them had committed felonies considered serious or violent, including attempted murder.

Some face potential sentences of six months. Others are looking at 10 years.

Stephan said the sting was significant, but acknowledged that drug dealing is an ongoing problem that law enforcement fights against on a daily basis.


“What we are not going to do, is to just let the streets be the streets,” she said.