Investigators arrested 20 people during a law enforcement operation this week targeting violent offenders in Bemidji and the surrounding areas. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Violent Crime Reduction Unit led the operation in partnership with the Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, Bemidji Police Department, Leech Lake and Red Lake tribal police departments, the Hubbard, Cass and Beltrami County sheriff’s offices, the FBI’s Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force and the BCA Bemidji Regional Office. The law enforcement effort, which took place July 22-23, focused on offenders wanted for firearms violations, shootings and narcotics offenses. Some people were taken into custody on outstanding warrants. Law enforcement also recovered four illegal firearms, one gun silencer, ammunition and small amounts of illicit narcotics. All of those arrested were booked into either the Cass County Jail, the Hubbard County Jail or the Red Lake Detention Center pending formal charges.