A dozen people police say made up a drug trafficking organization operating out of Southwest Baltimore’s Irvington neighborhood now face drug and gun charges, officials announced Thursday. The “takedown” was the result of a monthslong investigation by the Baltimore Police Department’s Group Violence Unit, as part of the city’s Group Violence Reduction Strategy. Officials said they reached out to the defendants, two of whom have open warrants and have not been arrested, with an offer of services before the law enforcement action, as part of the GVRS model. They did not take the city up on that offer.

Mayor Brandon Scott said similar offers have resulted in a range of services for individuals, including housing relocation, job training, and mental or behavioral health support.

“We will provide, and have provided to individuals, whatever they need,” Scott said. “But when you tell us to pound sand — ‘We’re gonna do what we want anyway’ — I don’t play poker. I don’t bluff. This is what’s going to happen to you.”

The GVRS program is a strategy of focused deterrence. It targets the small number of individuals driving violence in a community, seeking first to connect them to services or resources, to get out of “the life,” Scott said. If they refuse, law enforcement actions can follow. The strategy is being deployed in Baltimore’s Western, Southwestern and Central districts. It is expected to launch in the Eastern this spring.

A study released earlier this year by the University of Pennsylvania found it was “highly likely” that the first 18 months of the Western District pilot resulted in a roughly one-quarter reduction in homicides and shootings. The ongoing research was funded by the city and a group of Baltimore-related foundations and organizations.

The dozen people charged in this takedown are accused of operating in Irvington’s 200 block of Collins Avenue and the 4100 block of Frederick Avenue. Search warrants served last year resulted in the seizure of nine firearms, along with suspected fentanyl, marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

No defendants are charged with an act of violence, but officials described the investigation as ongoing.

“Just because a takedown happens doesn’t mean that our investigators stop working on this group and tying things together,” said Samantha Mildenberg, with the State’s Attorney’s Office’s major investigations unit. “Our first goal was to get these individuals off the street. The second goal is to continue to investigate what type of violence … had an impact on that community.”

Scott and Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the drug operations near that intersection have been notorious for years. The mayor described this takedown as a way of “answering the community’s call.”