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Indictment Bumper Crop Makes Record In KC Federal Court

Dan Verbeck
/
KCUR

Kansas City’s anti-crime NOVA program was shifted into a higher gear today as federal  prosecutors  took charge of 61 grand jury indictments.

NOVA is acronym for No Violence Alliance. 

Those named in indictments  are supposed to be among the most violent alleged criminals in the city. Nearly every charge involves illegal possession or sale of guns.

The No Violence Alliance is bifurcated. One side aims to arrest the serious crime leaders.

Marino Vidoli ( pictured) is agent in charge of the local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and added up the numbers, saying--"over the past ten months, ATF agents along with police officers and detectives from the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department have risked their lives to execute over 175 undercover operations to perfect the criminal charges that were unveiled today."

Tammy Dickinson is U. S. Attorney and talked today about the raids, saying-- “this was the largest federal roundup ever conducted in the Western District of Missouri, from a single investigation. We’re taking  dozens of violent criminals off the streets and hundreds of illegal guns out of circulation.”

The other side of KCNOVA uses  social  program tools to convince the upcoming generations of crime leaders that it’s not worth the threat of long times in prison or death at hands of rivals.

Probation officers, police, prosecutors and ATF agents met with some who have volunteered for rehabilitation into a better way of living.

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