Authorities said 67 of the 246 people arrested Friday and Saturday were gang members.

The multi-agency sweep took place across a number of the county's central, southern and eastern communities over a nine-hour period beginning Friday evening and ending early Saturday morning, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told reporters.

The goal of "Operation Allied Shield III" was to put a serious dent in the ability of local gangs to take part in drug smuggling, human trafficking and other cross-border crimes directed by transnational criminal organizations, according to Gore.

In addition to making scores of arrests, personnel with various local, state and federal agencies impounded 8,278 grams of marijuana, 237 grams of methamphetamine, 38 grams of cocaine, 15.25 grams of heroin and 12 grams of Ecstasy during the raids.

Law enforcement intelligence has shown that cross-border crime groups, such as Mexican drug cartels, have enlisted U.S. gangs to further their illicit operations, Gore said during a briefing at his department's Kearny Mesa headquarters.

Personnel carrying out the operation also came across a wide range of other criminal activities, such as possession of illegal drugs, DUIs and other traffic violations, and violations of parole and probation.

The sweep was the third phase of Operation Allied Shield program, which began last April. The initiative is supported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice as part of their multi-faceted approaches to border security.

Funding for local and state law enforcement agencies came from a $28.3 million DHS grant award known as Operation Stonegarden.

Gore said, "Operation Stonegarden gives us the best chance at being successful driving the crime rate continuously down which we have done."

There was a 250 percent increase in citations issued, and a 6 percent increase in arrests compared to the last Operation Allied Shield in 2010.