Created: 11/6/2009 3:34:55 PM 
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. -- Operation Street Sweeper, phase 2, is now complete.
The Special Investigations Unit of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office has been taking steps to curb the flow of marijuana, cocaine and prescription drugs through the county, from Ponte Vedra Beach to Hastings.
Phase 1 was this summer and, using informants and undercover officers, targeted distributors, mostly known offenders with previous drug convictions.
That resulted in 55 arrest warrants.
As phase 2 went down today, 35 of those 55 were arrested; the remaining 20 are still being sought.
Sheriff David Shoar said many of those arrested had been arrested before: three had been arrested for homicides, one for attempted murder and ten for robbery.
He said many of those arrested were children or grandchildren of those arrested on drug charges decades ago.
"The key is to somehow make this the last generation. We haven't figured out how to do that, but we are not giving up," Shoar added.
Sheriff's deputies divided into seven teams and headed out about sunrise this morning to start the roundup.
The operation was put into place to deal with the numerous complaints coming into the Sheriff's Office about the illegal drug trade in the county.
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