DES MOINES, Iowa -- A number of Des Moines area police departments and federal agents served 43 warrants in a series of raids in Des Moines, West Des Moines, Waukee, Windsor Heights, Clive, and Adel.
"We teamed up with our partners at the Iowa Department of Public Safety, and on the federal side also. We had about 500 cops in town, and executed 43 search warrants simultaneously." says Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek.
He tells says the warrants were served in connection with a nearly year-long investigations into suspected gang activity as well as drug and gun crimes.
Parizek says there's a reason all the raids happened at the same time this morning.
"Each of them has to be executed right at 5:00 a.m. so we can get ahead of social media. We can get ahead of communication via text message or Snapchat. We don't want to lose evidence and we don't want to lose suspects--we certainly need that advantage for the safety perspective" he says.
Federal agents from the ATF - the Bureau of Alcohol, firearms, Tobacco and Explosives, and the FBI, were part of the raids, as well as the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations.
The U.S. Attorney's office is expected to announce arrests from the raids later this week.