Two were arrested and over a dozen citations were issued during a special operation by Laurinburg police during Memorial Day Weekend.

The seven-hour long operation on Friday targeted high-crime areas in the city, according to officials.

According to a police report, officers arrested 32-year old Robert Dewayne Nicholson, of Grant Street in Laurinburg. He is charged with possessing marijuana with the intent to sell and deliver within 1,000 feet of a school and simple possession of marijuana.

Nicholson was walking in the Washington Park area, one of the locations the operation targeted. Officers conducted a pat down of Nicholson, locating 11 baggies of marijuana and a marijuana blunt.

He was placed in Scotland County jail under a $15,000 bond, the report said.

Nicholson has two previous convictions on drug charges, according to department of corrections records.

Also arrested was Levester Chavis, according to Captain Kim Monroe, LPD.

Chavis rode his bike through a police checkpoint in the Carolina Park area, refusing to stop for officers, according to Monroe.

Chavis was charged with simple possession of marijuana, resisting officers, failure to stop for a traffic officer and driving without a light on his bike, the police captain said. Chavis was also served an outstanding warrant.

Chavis's information had not been entered into the police database so the suspect's age, address and bond amount were unavailable, according to Monroe.

Other citations from the operation included:

• Four were charged with simple possession of marijuana.

• One was charged with driving without a license.

• Two were charged with driving while their license was revoked.

• Two were charged with seat belt violations.

Officials say these operations are a vigilant attempt to reduce crime in the city, which has seen an upturn in violent crimes in recent years.

"The reason we are doing this is because we had the increase in gun violence in the city," said John Evans, Laurinburg police chief

Evans said that there were incidents with people shooting at each other, or where people were just randomly shooting up in the air. He plans to put an end to it.

"People have been afraid to come out," Evans said. "We are trying to alleviate this problem."

Evans said police will conduct more of these operations on "randomly chosen dates."

"The objective of these operations is to serve as a crime deterrent for troubled neighborhoods," Monroe said.

He said targeted enforcement is a two-fold operation. First, it allows police to look for people with outstanding warrants; second, it puts officers in high-crime areas where they can catch people possessing illicit drugs and weapons or in violation of other laws.

"The arrests were fewer than the last operation," Monroe said. Seven arrests were made in the previous operation.

He was far from disappointed with the results, however. Monroe attributed the decline in arrests to the success of the last operation.

The police captain noted that fewer arrests signified a reduction in crime in problematic areas for law enforcement.

These areas included the Washington Park area, the Carolina Park area, McDuffie Village, Scotland Manor, Produce Market, Pine Street and Chestnut Street, Monroe said.