Justice Department officials on Thursday announced the arrests of 300 fugitives as well as sweeping prosecutions against more than 175 people accused of violent crimes — all part of a massive federal law enforcement collaboration over the past two months.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros called the effort, which he created, “Operation New Dawn.”
“A new dawn of crime fighting is underway in Chicago,” Boutros, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said alongside other federal law enforcement leaders at a news conference Thursday at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse. He said the announcement was timed to coincide with the country’s 250th anniversary July 4.
The size of the joint effort was “an experiment,” Boutros said — and something that “had not been done before here in Chicago” and which “worked very, very well.”
In all, charges were filed against 179 people in 140 new cases, while 305 fugitives were arrested and 24 children who had been kidnapped or lost were returned home.
“Eleven federal agencies worked arm-in-arm as one cohesive, unified group to arrest dangerous criminals responsible for some of the most serious offenses,” Boutros said.
The 60-day operation was focused on the Chicago area and the Northern District of Illinois. It included partnerships between 11 federal agencies, among them the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Federal Bureau of Investigations; the Drug Enforcement Agency; U.S. Marshals Service; and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The dozens of new charges range from murder, kidnapping, and firearm and drug trafficking.
“This is a whole of government approach that we’ve taken not only in the city of Chicago, but Chicago, I think, is one of the biggest and shiniest examples that we can use of success when the government works together to use all of the expertise that each of us brings to the table to reduce violent crime in our cities across the United States,” ATF Director Robert Cekada said.
At the news conference, officials displayed photos of large amounts of guns, drugs and money that were seized during the investigation.
Cekada added that the initiative’s intention was to “remove these violent offenders on our streets that have been operating the way they have for years, emboldened by many years of not being held accountable for committing their violent crimes throughout this city and many other cities in this country.”
The “Operation New Dawn” announcement comes as Boutros’ office is facing a credibility crisis over its handling of the “Broadview Six” prosecution and over dropped charges in an attempted robbery of undercover federal officers. The latter charges were dropped after a video appeared to contradict the feds’ claims in a sworn affidavit.
But Boutros boasted Thursday how his office has increased violent crime charges by 64% compared to 2024, before he took office.
In other year-to-date statistical comparisons between 2026 and 2024, Boutros said his office has increased firearm charges by 154%, sex crime prosecutions by 50%, narcotics prosecutions by 24% and criminal immigration cases by nearly 300%.