Of the 90 arrested, 22 were documented gang members and six were wanted on murder-related charges. The murder suspects included two brothers wanted in a double killing in Hopewell, and two men being sought in the robbery and slaying of a Richmond man in his Fan District home.

The operation also resulted in the seizure of 54 grams of heroin as well as cocaine, Oxycontin pills and marijuana. Police also recovered six firearms that included two 9 mm pistols, one .380-caliber pistol, a .22-caliber pistol, a .410 sawed-off shotgun and a 7.62-caliber pistol, which authorities described as an AK-47-type firearm.

“What the Richmond Police Department and other jurisdictions liked about this, is in the communities everyone saw those law enforcement officers working together and removing these folks,” Connolly said. “And I think we even gained a few [unanticipated] surrender arrests as a result of this, because they thought that we were coming after them.”

The U.S. Marshals have a national program that targets gang fugitives in certain cities across the nation, and authorities took a look at Richmond and surrounding localities to see if it could be beneficial here, Connolly said.