More than 100 people connected to Phoenix streets gangs face criminal charges following an investigation that revealed drug-running activities stretching from Arizona to the East Coast.

A task force led by Phoenix police and the FBI announced they arrested 63 of the suspects early Wednesday. Two others turned themselves in, and nearly 40 people are outstanding, authorities said.

The far-reaching criminal conspiracy case compiled by the FBI's Violent Street Gang Task Force received its nickname, Operation Trident, because investigators initially focused on three street gangs. Since January, investigators unraveled drug operations that supplied the local market and as far away as New York and Delaware.

Investigators recently seized 500 pounds of marijuana, 1,000 ecstasy pills, and nearly $250,000 in cash from drug proceeds, according to authorities. The gangs were also involved in dealing crack cocaine and PCP.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas joined Phoenix Public Safety Manager Jack Harris, Mayor Phil Gordon, and investigators from several law enforcement agencies in heralding the arrests as one additional step toward freeing neighborhoods of gang violence. Thomas said a grand jury returned the lengthy series of indictments in the conspiracy case on Tuesday.

The street gang task force included efforts by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and several other federal, state and local agencies.

Phoenix police Lt. Charlie Consolian, who oversees gang investigations, said investigators served search warrants at 14 homes in the Valley - finding luxury vehicles and flat-screen TVs among the items funded by the drug trade.

"Sixty-three out of 104 is actually a pretty good batting average for a one-day takedown," said Consolian, whose gang unit helped arrest 127 of more than 180 suspects indicted on hundreds of felony counts ranging from conspiracy to drug-related charges in a similar investigation earlier this year.

The earlier operation involved south Phoenix gang members forging government checks to fund the drug trade. Unlike the dozens of gang associates involved in that case, those arrested Wednesday were far violent, Consolian said.

"The majority have been in south and west Phoenix, which is unfortunate, but those communities have been under the control of these groups for some time," he said.