HIGH POINT, N.C. — High Point police say it’s the city’s biggest collection of drug arrests in the past four years.

On Thursday, the police department’s Vice Narcotics Unit worked with the Greensboro DEA Task Force and U.S. Attorney’s Office to complete an investigation into heroin, fentanyl, meth and cocaine trafficking.

The city noticed an increase in the use of the drugs in late 2018 and early 2019.

In 2018, 17 people died of overdoses, and, in 2019, 23 more people died of overdoses.

Police say they have been working to make these “deadly narcotics” less available.

From early 2019 to mid-2019, officers were able to identify several suspected key players in narcotics distribution and related violence.

Across 18 arrests, police seized the following, with amounts rounded down:

• 140 pounds of methamphetamine worth about $421,000
• 14 pounds of heroin worth about $393,500
• 5 grams of fentanyl worth about $600
• 35 grams of cocaine worth about $1,500
• 72 grams of crack cocaine worth about $4,000
• 11 firearms

Police released the names of 18 people sentenced in U.S. District Federal Court as a result of this investigation.

• Eduardo Villa-Deras, 150 months in prison, 3 years supervised release
• Juan Villa-Deras, 132 months in prison, 3 years supervised release
• Juan Manuel Ursua, 60 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $7,200 fine
• Iovanny Hodges sentenced to 54 months in prison, 3 years supervised release, $3,000 fine
• Jeffrey Demetrius Haynes, 180 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Darius Jarmaine Harris, 120 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Antonio Cortez Gladney, 168 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Wesley Thomas Kennedy, 120 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Eddie Robin Simmons, 96 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Brett Coltrane Ferguson, 48 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Jamie Lee Joyce, 16 months in prison, 5 months curfew, 4 years supervised release
• Darrell Alan pell, 50 months in prison, 4 years supervised release
• Christine Renea Sims, 60 months in prison, 6 months curfew, 5 years supervised release
• Lyndsey Ellen brock, 57 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Carlos Calderon, 81 months in prison, 5 years supervised release
• Daniel Palacios-Salinas, 70 months in prison, 4 years supervised release
• William Henry Thatch Jr., 131 months in prison
• Tevin Rayshawn Williams, 106 months in prison, 4 years supervised release

Thatcher was released from federal prison in 2016 for previously selling crack cocaine in High Point.

“I’m going to be honest with you, being in law enforcement that’s frustrating,” High Point Lt. Matt Truitt said, regarding Thatcher’s arrest.

He was arrested in 1999 for distributing nearly two pounds of narcotics and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Authorities say he was essentially able to pick up where he left off.

Police said these people do not appear to have any connection to each other aside from similar crimes and charges.

Officers say that none of them are connected to any overdose deaths in recent years.

The weapons seized were almost all handguns that were obtained illegally by theft.