Seattle police and federal agents are revealing new details about Operation Red Card, a quiet, weeks‑long crackdown on violent crime that ran behind the scenes of Seattle’s 2026 World Cup matches.
World Cup safety operation ran in the background
Andre Sayles, Seattle Police Department Deputy Chief of Administration and Investigations, said Operation Red Card was designed to capitalize on the World Cup spotlight by coordinating local, state, and federal resources against the region’s most dangerous offenders.
He called the tournament “an amazing time for our city” and noted there were no major public safety incidents during the games, crediting years of planning and a focused effort to remove high‑risk offenders and illegal guns from the streets.
“Our overall goal for this initiative was simple: to coordinate our shared resources, to identify violent criminals, and hold them accountable, thereby making Seattle a safer city for all,” Sayles said.
17 arrests, 12 guns seized in Operation Red Card
Over roughly five weeks, agencies working under the Red Card umbrella arrested 17 suspects, described as some of Seattle’s most violent offenders, and seized 12 firearms of varying calibers, including weapons modified with so‑called “switches” that can turn a semi‑automatic pistol into a fully automatic firearm…