18 ARRESTED DURING DRUG DETAIL

Driving through neighborhoods near Waldo Road and E. University Avenue,
Sgt. Matt Nechodom stopped and chatted with people Tuesday morning.

But the talk didn't involve the officer taking police reports.

Nechodom, dressed in a T-shirt and old pants instead of a uniform, posed as
a lawn maintenance employee looking to buy marijuana and cocaine during his
lunch break. Circling the streets in a blue Chevy pickup, the sergeant was
one of about 30 Gainesville Police officers involved in the department's
undercover operation to nab drug dealers.

Officers arrested 18 people, some on warrants, others after they sold drugs
to undercover police during the day's 10-hour detail.

Police cruised through neighborhoods, searching for 29 people with warrants
for their arrest on drug charges, and setting up a sting operation to catch
people dealing drugs.

The detail is part of the department's Comprehensive Drug Plan, started in
2003, which uses drug forfeiture money to fund police details to stop
dealers, said Lt. Bart Knowles, commander of GPD's narcotics unit. The plan
combines treatment, education and enforcement efforts.

"We get a lot of complaints in these areas" about problems with drug
dealing, said Officer Charles Ward.

Officers who regularly patrol Gainesville neighborhoods worked with
narcotics investigators to get enough evidence to obtain the warrants,
police said.

Two of the people arrested Tuesday afternoon were accused of offering to
sell drugs to Nechodom, according to police.

The officer stopped near Gardenia Gardens off NE 8th Avenue after a woman
flagged him down. Uniformed police, riding in unmarked minivans nearby and
listening on radios as Nechodom spoke to the woman, moved into the area
after she agreed to sell him cocaine. They chased her, catching her on the
lawn in front of one apartment building. As they handcuffed her and carried
her to a police car, residents watched.

Neighbor Kesha Evans, 28, said she was scared when she first heard the
commotion outside the apartments. But, she said, as a mother with five
young children, she was glad police were trying to stop drug dealing in the
neighborhood.

Inside the police car, after the arrest, the woman said she was thankful,
"Because I wasn't doing nothing but killing myself anyway."

Police charged the woman with sale in lieu of a controlled substance,
saying she claimed to have cocaine when speaking with the undercover
officer, but instead sold soap.