U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers earlier this month arrested 216 people living in the United States illegally who have been convicted of drug trafficking or multiple drug possession offenses, officials announced Thursday.

The 12-day operation across 25 cities nabbed people convicted of crimes that involved methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, heroin or synthetic drugs, acting ICE Director Patrick Lechleitner said at a news conference. 

The sweep — which ran from March 11-22 — was led by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division (ERO).

“This operation enabled us to do what ERO was created to do, and that is focus on smart, effective immigration enforcement to protect our homeland by arresting and removing people who undermine public safety and violate the integrity of our immigration laws,” Lechleitner said.

In all, ICE targeted 419 migrants in the operation, but more than 200 remain at large. Lechleitner said that, given the challenges in locating wanted migrants and the short timeframe of the operation, it was a “very successful operation.”

“The other individuals will still be looked at and apprehended eventually,” he said.

Lechleitner said “many” of those who were arrested can be deported to their own countries, although he did not provide a number. Thirty-one have already been removed from the United States, said Russell Hott, ERO’s deputy executive associate editor. 

Hott said the 216 arrested, which include people of 28 different nationalities, have 456 convictions among them, including 85 for drug trafficking. While the operation targeted drug offenders, some have been convicted of other crimes such as burglary, arson, assault, kidnapping, extortion, sexual assault and forgery, he said.

One hundred four of those arrested had previously been removed from the U.S. by ERO and reentered the country illegally, Hott said.

Among those arrested, officials said, were: 

• In New Jersey, a 44-year-old Mexican citizen convicted of money laundering, narcotics conspiracy, felony distribution and possession with intent to distribute heroin, and possession or use of a firearm related to drug trafficking. 
  
  
• In Cincinnati, a 34-year-old El Salvador citizen convicted of felony conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl.
  
  
• In Orlando, a 32-year-old citizen of India convicted of oxycodone trafficking and felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell or deliver.

“This operation reflects the Herculean efforts that ERO officers make each and every day to promote public safety, to rid our neighborhoods of the scourge of perilous drugs and to disrupt the transnational criminal enterprises that prey on our communities through the introduction of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs,” Hott said.

There were nearly 108,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. 

“We're on a mission to protect the American public by detaining and removing people who contribute to this horrible drug crisis,” Lechleitner said. “And that's exactly what this is. It's a crisis.”