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During the Reagan administration, SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics once reserved for riots and active shooter situations were increasingly used to wage Reagan’s war on drugs. At times, joint local, state, and federal operations raided entire city blocks, or every unit in a public housing complex.

In a February 1986 operation dubbed “Operation Caribbean Cruise,” police mistakenly raided a retired lieutenant with the Washington, D.C. Metro Police Department, a career foreign service worker, and a Washington Post employee, among others. The latter described the experience as “like the allied troops at Normandy.”

In all, 530 police officers—12 percent of the Washington, D.C. police department, plus federal agents from the IRS, U.S. Parks Police, ATF, immigration, and the Internal Revenue Service—conducted 69 simultaneous raids all across the city. They anticipated over 500 arrests, hundreds of pounds of marijuana worth millions of dollars, and dozens of automatic weapons. The final tally: 27 arrests, 13 for possession of marijuana. They seized 13 weapons and found $20,000 worth of illicit drugs.