JACKSON, MI - Police in Jackson County poured Thursday night into the south side of Jackson as part of an aggressive effort to address city violence and remove guns and drugs from the streets.

In total, police seized seven guns, two of them reported stolen, and dealer amounts of cocaine, crystal methamphetamine and heroin, said Michigan State Police Detective Lt. Derrick White, who leads the Jackson Narcotics Enforcement Team. The team coordinated the "patrol surge."

Officers, aided and supported by a state police helicopter, also arrested several people with outstanding warrants, took into custody two alleged parole violators and jailed one man in connection with narcotics activity, White said.

While state police troopers and officers from Jackson and the county sheriff's office conducted traffic stops from about 7 to 11:30 p.m. Aug. 2, the narcotics enforcement team raided four addresses, White said.

The team had search warrants to scour two homes on Morrell Street, one on Union Street and another in Reed Manor, the housing complex on Steward Avenue, White said. These searches netted about 20 grams of heroin, about 20 grams of crack and more than 30 grams of crystal meth, White said. Team members also located six guns. They were not registered and believed to be used for illicit purposes.

Police also found a user amount of heroin while making more than 60 traffic stops, mostly south of Michigan Avenue, for various driving or traffic offenses. This was not, however, about writing tickets, White said. Officers issued very few citations. "It was about guns and drugs," the lieutenant said.

The helicopter, which had Jackson social media abuzz, provided intelligence from the sky, White said.

He said the idea of the effort, discussed since spring, was to target high-crime neighborhoods and quell violence in Jackson, where there have been a series of summer shootings. In early June, for example, three people were wounded by gunfire in less than a week on Jackson's south side.

Almost always, the shootings are linked to drug activity, White said.

He said more than 20 officers were involved in the surge, which White called a success. Police have those responsible for the city's crimes worried and looking over their shoulders, he said.

White said he anticipates more arrests in the future, as investigative work continues and information is sent to the county prosecutor's office.

It is possible too that the drug team, a task force of under-cover officers from multiple departments, will coordinate another surge before the summer ends.

"People appreciate the extra effort to keep neighborhoods of Jackson a safe place," he said.