The police department’s narcotics division is wrapping up a months-long undercover operation with a string of arrests.

Fifteen officers from Benson and Johnston County fanned out at about 2 p.m. May 29 and nabbed six of the suspects, including five who now face cocaine-related charges. By press time, officers had picked up two more suspects but were still looking for four others.

“It was more of a street-level bust,” said Michael Smith, a narcotics officer. “They were selling $20, $40 rocks here and there.”

Many of the suspects were arrested in the areas around West Harnett and West Woodall streets and along Whittington and Benton streets, Smith said.

Sharon Baker, a resident of East Harnett Street, said she had seen ramped-up police activity in the area over the last few weeks. “The police have been coming through here like crazy,” said Baker, who lives with five children just blocks from where some of the suspects had loitered.

“There’s bad dealers down there,” she said, looking toward the train tracks that separate the two end of Harnett Street.

One of Baker’s daughters lives in the West Harnett Street neighborhood, she said.

“I can’t make her stay at home,” Baker said. “I don’t know if she’s doing drugs; it’s just not cool.”

On West Harnett Street, some people thought the operation had been misdirected.

“It’s a good thing that they cleaned up the streets,” said a slight woman who did not give her name. But, she added: “They didn’t get all the right people. The big-time drug dealers are selling out the chumps.”

The recent bust was deliberately aimed at low-level dealers and likely left the suppliers in place, Smith said.

“They’re getting their supply somewhere, and of course that’s our ultimate goal, to take them off the street as well,” Smith said. “You start low and kind of work your way up.”

According to Smith, most of the dealers in Benson are far from “big-time.”

“They’re trying to make a dollar. They’re not major drug dealers.” he said. The drugs and dealers tend to come in waves, he said, with most of the scene going quiet after major raids and operations “Of course, it’ll pick right back up like it normally has,” Smith added. The woman on West Harnett Street seemed resigned to the same conclusion. “I been here for a minute, and it ain’t gonna never change,” she said.