MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Federal agents and SWAT team members from several agencies raided five Central Florida homes before sunrise Thursday, seizing about $20,000 in cocaine along with assault weapons and 12 drug suspects.

The raids followed a six-month undercover investigation targeting midlevel street drug dealers who belonged to a loose-knit group of people from the south Melbourne area, Local 6 News partner Florida Today reported.

"We recovered weapons and a lot of cocaine, and we hope to stem some of the violence in that area," Melbourne Police Chief Don Carey said during a news conference with representatives from the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The south Melbourne neighborhood has been plagued by a number of drive-by shootings and several homicides this year, officials said.

"People were shooting up the place. But it's great to see it broken up," said Carey, adding that investigation also was a quality-of-life issue for residents in south Melbourne.

Hours after the arrests, officers displayed a table with more than 30 evidence bags of powdered cocaine, marijuana and pills.

The raids also came less than two weeks after the police chiefs of the Melbourne and Palm Bay police departments signed off on a mutual enforcement zone agreement that allows officers to cross jurisdictional boundaries in the same neighborhood targeted in Thursday's operation to make arrests and pursue cases.

Palm Bay SWAT team members also assisted in the predawn raids.

"South Melbourne was our main focus because of the violence and shootings that have been taking place there," said Stephen Collins, the district agent-in-charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Orlando office.

Collins said the people arrested were dealing "pounds and pounds of cocaine," including supplies that came from South Florida.

But, Collins said, "this was not a Mexican cartel we're talking about."