FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AG
MONDAY, MARCH 11, 1996                             (202) 616-2777
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888


               STATEMENT BY ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO 
               ON TODAY'S ARRESTS IN SAN FRANCISCO

     This morning's arrests in San Francisco demonstrate the
Justice Department's continuing commitment to dismantling the
Nation's most dangerous and violent drug trafficking
organizations.  As this operation shows, we target these
organizations in their entirety -- from high-level suppliers of
powder cocaine, to those responsible for "cooking" the powder
cocaine into crack cocaine, to the crack dealers on the street. 
The investigation was initiated by complaints of the decent and
law-abiding citizens of the communities in which these violent
drug traffickers ply their trade.
    
     Operation Hardstone has been a model narcotics
investigation, combining federal, state, and local resources
through both the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force
("OCDETF") program and the Anti-Violent Crime Initiative
("AVCI").  I applaud United States Attorney Yamaguchi and all the
fine men and woman who participated in this successful operation,
including members of the Untied States Attorney's Office for the
Northern District of California, the Department of Justice's
Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the
Internal Revenue Service, and the San Francisco Police
Department.  Through efforts like these across the country, we
are working to make our streets, our public housing projects, and
our children safe from drug-related crime and violence.


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