FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. -- Cleaning off Central Florida streets, more than 100 people were arrested by law enforcement during Operation Spring Cleaning.
- Statewide operation prompts drug-related arrests
- 45 people arrested in Flagler County from operation
- 'Operation Spring Cleaning' led to 7,000 arrests statewide
The suspects are accused of selling drugs across Flagler, Volusia and Putnam counties.
Several law enforcement agencies came together to track down the illegal drug operation.
“She was my whole world. I can't even define what she meant to me. She was my everything,” Renee' DeAngelis said.
Six months ago, 23-year-old Savannah DeAngelis died of an overdose.
“It’s not a game. It's killing people, and it killed our daughter. It just has to end,” said Chip DeAngelis, whose daughter also died of an overdose.
That's why the DeAngelises support every single drug operation law enforcement across the state is using to find and charge suspected drug dealers.
"It's not OK to deal drugs. It's not a career," DeAngelis said.
The seven-month-long drug investigation called Operation Spring Cleaning led deputies to 45 arrests and more than 10 pounds of drugs confiscated in Flagler County.
"It might only be a tip in the iceberg, but we'll never know how many lives were saved, because they were in jail and couldn't peddle their poison,” Sheriff Rick Staly said.
DeAngelis said the operation helps her family remain strong -- they're relying on it to cope with Savannah's death.
They'll also one day have to face Joseph Colon, Savannah's accused drug dealer who is charged with first degree murder.
They're hoping these operations will someday keep another family from going through what they did.
"Once people like this are off the street, lives are automatically being saved immediately," DeAngelis said.
Almost 5,000 people were arrested statewide from the operation. From opioids to illegal drugs, weapons and money, investigators confiscated hundreds of thousands of grams of drugs, plus more than 1,600 firearms, they said.