Even though I was anxiously awaiting the news for months, it took a while to get my mind around what I saw and heard at the July 27 press conference in Asbury Park.

There they were behind the microphone - Police Director Louis Jordan; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (yah!) Special Agent Michael Pasterchick; Monmouth County Prosecutor John Kaye; U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, and others - announcing that more than 150 federal, state, county and local law enforcement agents had staged over 30 early-morning raids to arrest the biggest and most violent cocaine, crack and heroin traffickers victimizing Asbury Park.

"The Asbury Park Organization is dismantled," Pasterchick announced.

"On behalf of the people of Asbury Park, we are just so happy, we feel like break dancing," Jordan added.

Last summer - as we sat in his office discussing the never-ending cycle of drug-dealing, arrests and early releases that plague Asbury Park's residents and police officers - Lou confided that he had contacted an old friend at the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and was negotiating to secretly bring one of their Mobile Enforcement Teams (MET) to Asbury Park in late 2003 or early 2004.

The MET is a specialized squad that targets drug traffickers and urban violence in close coordination with local authorities. Its members are equipped with special training and an array of gadgets - helicopters, special radio communication frequencies, canine units, night-visioning equipment, and more - that few local agencies can afford.

In early 2004, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office publicly announced that it was concentrating its Technical Narcotics Team (TNT) - headed by Lt. Brian Rubino - in the Asbury Park area, in partnership with the Asbury Park and Neptune Police Departments and New Jersey Criminal Justice investigators.

What wasn't publicly known, however, is that the team also included agents from the federal Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms Bureau; the U.S. Marshal's Service; and a 12-person, undercover MET.

Needless to say, local arrest rates immediately shot up: The Prosecutor's Office reported 738 arrests in Asbury Park through July 20, for offenses ranging from possession of controlled dangerous substances and drug paraphernalia to weapon possession, outstanding warrants, and more.

In addition, city police have arrested 2,115 adults and 190 juveniles since January 1 -compared to 2,097 adults and 144 juveniles for all of 2003.

Despite these numbers, beleaguered city residents were still pleading for help at a city council meeting just a week before the July 27 raid, as new (or recently released) low-level drug dealers rose up to take the place of those arrested.

Which is why federal participation was vital: With their more sophisticated methods (including federal wiretaps) and broader range of authority, the MET members and their colleagues were able to gather extensive evidence against Allen "Alley Cat" Height and Dameion "Rock" Edgerton, both of Neptune - the reported ringleaders of the so-called "Asbury Park Organization."

Federal agents also apprehended some of the ringleaders' major, out-of-state contacts, including a Manhattan man who apparently supplied them with up to 40 kilograms of cocaine over a five-month period and a Virginia visitor who left Height's house with almost 900 grams of cocaine in his van.

And the many suspects who were arrested on federal charges in raids stretching from Lakewood and Neptune to Long Branch and Red Bank most likely won't be coming home soon: If convicted, they face 10 years to life in federal prison and a maximum $4 million fine.

U.S. Attorney Christie also promised that those prisons will be far, far away from Asbury Park and pointed out that the federal government doesn't believe in parole.

Equally significant, several of the people arrested were involved in recent gun violence between African-American and Haitian-American factions, and Jordan assured me that an additional federal agency is being called in to specifically address this problem.

Does this mean that drug dealing has totally ended in Asbury Park? Obviously not. But it does mean that drug activity has been reduced very, very significantly here. (And, yes, I've been cruising by - or into - some of the major city trouble spots and observing quite a difference.)

It also reinforces the fact that the solution goes well beyond the jurisdiction of our local Police Department, particularly since the key suppliers (and many buyers) are not Asbury Park, Monmouth County - or even New Jersey - residents.

While not divulging details, Jordan assures me that the investigation has not ended, and Asbury Park's ten new police candidates - nine of whom are now in training at the police academy - will help maintain our local gains.

But we must insist that our state, county and federal elected officials keep up the heat in Asbury Park and surrounding towns.

In the meantime, we definitely have reason to celebrate. And every one of us owes a debt of gratitude to our own Police Department (particularly to Officers Michael Barnes, Eugene Dello, Marshawn Love, Daniel Newman, Guy Thompson, and Philip Montgomery who worked directly with the Prosecutor's Office and MET) and to an army of law enforcement officials whose names we may never know.

In reading the federal criminal complaint prepared by Special Agent Brian Crowe - including wiretapped conversations between the various defendants (I can now recite enough drug slang to make myself look like a major dweeb) - I was intrigued by ringleader "Rock" Edgerton's complaint about an intermediary named Shah who "took like four hours the last time to bring me [$1,000]."

Agreed co-defendant "Alley Cat" Height, "[Shah's] moody as hell."

Let's hope that every Asbury Park drug dealer (or former drug dealer) is just as moody right now - and that they stay that way for a long time to come.