The Statesboro Police Department received national recognition last week with the 2010 Project Safe Neighborhoods Achievement Award for Outstanding Gun Crime Investigation, said Gary G. Grindler, the U.S.’s acting deputy attorney general. The Department of Justice award was presented in recognition of Statesboro’s 2009 “Operation Statesboro Blues” sting that removed almost 100 firearms, as well as a sizable quantity of illegal drugs, from the city streets. “Operation Statesboro Blues was the largest, most complex, most diverse, and the most successful undercover operation in the history of the Statesboro Police Department,” said Wendell Turner, Statesboro public safety director.