Thread: U.S. Marshals sweep apprehends 10,733 fugitives

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/02/fugit ... index.html

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly 11,000 fugitives, including sex offenders, gang members and others wanted on a variety of charges from kidnapping to weapons offenses, were swept up last week in a 24-state operation, the Justice Department was to announce Thursday.

Among the fugitives caught were 1,659 sex offenders -- including 971 who failed to register with authorities as required by law -- in what the government called the largest number ever captured in a single law enforcement effort.

The sweep, led by the U.S. Marshals Service, "has made our nation's neighborhoods and children safer by taking off the streets some of the worst sex offenders, violent felons and gang members," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a prepared statement.

Gonzales was to discuss the roundup, code-named Operation Falcon III, at a news conference Thursday.

In one case, authorities said they tracked down Allen Marksberry, an unregistered sex offender in Rickman, Tennessee, who was convicted in 1996 of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old child. At the time of his October 24 arrest, officials said, Marksberry was baby-sitting several children -- all of whom were under 11 years old.

Agents also found pornography and drugs inside Marksberry's home, authorities said, and were led to a separate trailer that had a clear view of a playground and a pair of binoculars inside.

The October 22-28 roundup snared more fugitives than similar operations in April 2005 and April 2006, the Justice Department said.

The most recent dragnet, targeting 24 states east of the Mississippi River, was boosted by the 2006 Adam Walsh Act, approved by Congress last summer, which created stricter requirements for sex offenders to register with communities. Six-year-old Adam Walsh was abducted from a Florida shopping mall and murdered in 1981.

Hundreds of state and local law enforcement authorities and more than a half-dozen federal agencies -- including the U.S. Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the State Department -- helped in the roundup.

In all, officials said they caught 10,733 fugitives. Among them were 364 gang members and thousands of others sought on kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking and weapons charges. More than 230 weapons were collected.

Those totals represent a fraction of doors knocked on, liquor store drive-bys, construction site surveillances and tips chased down by agents during the weeklong sweep.

I would sure be curious to know how many of those folks arrested are illegal immigrants.

It sounds as though they only went after "documented" sex offenders. I wonder how many undocumented sex offenders they missed. If they can do roundups of this maganitude, they can deport illegals.

Originally Posted by MW

I would sure be curious to know how many of those folks arrested are illegal immigrants.

I don't know but the the US Marshalls sent out a press release in July indicating they would be doing this.

http://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2006/072706.htm

In the near future, Operation FALCON III will be conducted in the states and territories east of the Mississippi. The apprehension of felons wanted for sex offenses will again be a priority for the U.S. Marshals.

If they can do roundups of this maganitude, they can deport illegals.

I was thinking the same thing.

http://www.wral.com/news/10228420/detail.html

367 People Arrested In N.C. Fugitive Roundup

POSTED: 7:32 pm EST November 2, 2006
UPDATED: 9:09 pm EST November 2, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. -- More than 350 people were arrested last week in eastern North Carolina as part of a national roundup of fugitives, making it one of the most comprehensive operations of its kind in the state.

Operation FALCON III, conducted Oct. 22 to Oct. 28, focused heavily on gang-related crime, major felony warrants and unregistered sex offenders.

Personnel from 21 different law enforcement agencies in eastern North Carolina helped U.S. Marshals arrest 367 people, including 20 convicted sex offenders, and serve 415 warrants.

"(The) national average for a round up of this type is 13 percent," said Tex Lindsey, U.S. Marshal Fugitive Task Force commander for Eastern North Carolina. "And we far exceeded our expectations with an arrest average close to 40 percent."

Nationally, 10,773 fugitives were arrested and 13,333 felony warrants were cleared, including 365 documented gang members and 1,659 sexual offenders, of which 971 were unregistered sex offenders.