EDENTON, N.C. (WAVY) — A new approach to tackling violent crime has led to the indictment of 21 people accused of “contributing significantly” to offenses in northeast North Carolina.

At least five them are known gang members.

U.S. Attorney Michael Easley made the announcement with with a show of force standing with him Tuesday inside Edenton council chambers.

The recently launched Violent Crime Action Plan is a collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, sheriffs of at least eight counties surrounding the Albemarle Sound, city and town police chiefs and other state and federal law enforcement agencies.

The initiative is meant to crack down on those who are contributing to a majority of the crimes in the region by better sharing investigative information between agencies.

Since the plan’s launch in January, Easley said not only have they made arrests, they have also secured five guilty pleas.

“When the team got together, they identified 47 individuals across this region who were significant drivers of violence in this community,” Easley said. “All but a handful have already been arrested. I won’t say who they are, but if you’re involved in guns and drug trafficking in this community and driving violence, it might be you, and we’re not going to stop until everybody on that list has met justice.”

On top of the arrests, 26 guns have been seized across the region, including five fully-automatic machine guns. Authorities have also seized more than 240 grams of of fentanyl.

“Enough fentanyl to kill 120,000 people,” Easley said.

Eleven of the arrests took place in the last week.

Charges are being brought on both the state and federal level. The following eight individuals were arrested on federal charges as part of the recent enforcement effort:

• Robert Hall, 42, kidnapping and possession of a firearm by a felon (Perquimans County)
• Miguel Williams, 34, possession of a firearm by a felon; possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (Elizabeth City)
• Stanford Dantzler, 23, possession of a firearm by a felon (Elizabeth City)
• Anthony McCoy, 25, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of machine gun (Elizabeth City)
• Rashawn Baum, 28, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl (Elizabeth City)
• Tysheem Commander, 31, possession of a firearm by a felon (Elizabeth City)
• Jamari Ishman*, 24, possession of a firearm by a felon (Edenton)
• Al Ortiz, 48, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl (Elizabeth City)

*indicates that defendant is a member of the Blood Gang

“This region is tied together inextricably, and those bonds have to be tied among law enforcement to square off against it and face it,” Easley said. “And that’s why our Violent Crime Action Plan … adopts a [more] radically different model than anything that’s ever been done in this region before. Local intelligence sharing task force officers have been assigned from local agencies to federal task forces so that the FBI, Homeland Security, the ATF, as well as the Marshals Service, can bring federal intelligence and technology, as well as significant federal sentences in some cases, to level off against those driving violence.”