Around 50 people were arrested and enough fentanyl to “kill half the state” was seized yesterday near Lawrence after a federal drug, firearm and illegal immigration sweep.

The sweep was a part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative and followed a string of federal investigations called “Operation Law and Order.”

U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said, “Lawrence is a clearing house for illegal drugs pouring into New Hampshire and Maine via 93 and 495.” The operation seized over 20 pounds of fentanyl.

“The top priority of the attorney general is reducing the number of deaths attributed to overdoses,” Lelling said. “Especially heroin and synthetic opioids. The point of the operation today is to ensure that deterring drug activity is a priority.

“We arrested about 50 people and the number should go up. This will help make our larger point that the city of Lawrence is significant to law enforcement.”

The operation involved over 200 federal law enforcement agents and targeted repeat criminals that had prior convictions for violence, drug trafficking, firearm offenses or records of being in the country illegally, the attorney’s office said. Agents involved in the operation came with cooperation from multiple agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service.

“Efforts like ours today are about saving people’s lives,” added Lelling. “Every gram of fentanyl or heroin that we take off the street is a gram that is not going to contribute to killing somebody.”

Following the sweep, 35 defendants were charged with federal and state offenses, while nine are still at-large. ICE arrested 13 illegal immigrants, and 14, identified, remain at-large. Those arrested, will be “processed administratively for the removal from the United States.”

“Today is a good day for law enforcement,” said special agent in charge of DEA, Brian Boyle: “Those arrested during this operation need to be held accountable.”

Lelling said that as part of the PSN Initiative, in each federal district, “U.S. Attorney’s designate hot spots, towns or cities in need of increased gun or drug enforcement.”

“Here, based on FBI data, and other information from federal and state law enforcement, Lawrence is one of those cities,” he said.

The arrests in Lawrence come shortly after gas explosions wreaked havoc on Merrimack Valley last month.

“It’s not lost on me or my colleagues that Lawrence is already having a tough couple of weeks,” Lelling said. “The residents of that city have faced real hardship in the wake of the gas explosions and related fires. But unfortunately, even gas explosions have not stopped drug-dealing and gun violence in that town. What the people living there need is help and support. What they don’t need is drug dealers selling kilos of fentanyl and felons brandishing guns.”