Over the last three months, a coordinated effort by federal, state, and local law enforcement to crack down on violent crime in Oakland has led to the seizure of 76 illegal firearms and charges being brought against 51 defendants, the agencies involved in the operation announced Thursday.
“Operation Disarm” was a collaboration between the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the California Highway Patrol, the Oakland Police Department, and the Oakland Housing Authority Police Department.
“No one agency, whether federal, state, or local, can fight this problem on its own,” said Craig Missakian, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, at a press conference Thursday. “If we were going to do the job we were hired to do, we needed to work together, and that is exactly what happened.”
Of the 51 defendants charged as part of this initiative, 50 had prior felony convictions, and 27 had prior violent felony convictions, Missakian said, emphasizing that a small number of repeat offenders are responsible for the bulk of the gun violence in the city.
Between March and July, participating agencies examined cases across multiple jurisdictions, shared information about individuals with prior violent crime charges and gang affiliations, and planned joint operations.
“These efforts identified over 100 high-priority violent crime subjects in Oakland and contributed directly to the investigations that informed the federal charges brought during this period,” said Scott Schelble, the Special Agent in Charge at the FBI’s San Francisco field office.
In April, the Oakland Police Department announced that crimes such as homicide, aggravated assault, rape, robbery and burglary dropped 29% from Jan. 1 through March 31 compared with the same period in 2025.
At Thursday’s press conference, Oakland Police Assistant Chief Casey Johnson said the downward trend is continuing.
“We are solving more cases than we ever had before,” Johnson said. “Felony crimes are down by 18%, our homicides are down 32%, and shootings are down by 18%.”
One notable case of gun violence this year was the March 7 shooting at the EZ’s Lounge nightclub that claimed two lives and injured five.
Missakian said that the initiative was not born out of the shooting, but the need for such an effort became clearer because of it, and that the collaboration will continue going ahead, too.
“To that small group of repeat offenders,” said Missakian, “carry a gun in the city, in this area, we will find you, and we will take you off the street. You have my word on that.”