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News
Release Dea
New York Participates In
APR 18--United States Marshals Eugene J. Corcoran and Joseph R. Guccione jointly announce the successful completion of Operation FALCON. Operation FALCON (“Federal And Local Cops Organized Nationally”), which took place from April 4th through April 10th, was an unprecedented cooperative effort among federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities. This was the largest fugitive apprehension operation in American history. Over the course of seven days, Deputy U.S. Marshals and their law enforcement partners arrested a total of 10,340 fugitives, and cleared more than 13,800 felony warrants. More than 158 local fugitives were arrested and over 200 warrants were cleared in the New York Metropolitan area. “This was an enormous challenge that produced the largest number of arrests ever recorded by a single operation”, said Eugene J. Corcoran U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of New York. “Locally, the Marshals share this great accomplishment with numerous federal, state, and local agencies that dedicated more than 50 officers to assist us in this seven-day apprehension effort.” Operation FALCON focused on gang-related crimes, homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, unregistered sex offenders and crimes against children and the elderly. Locally, officers arrested 3 documented gang members, 3 homicide suspects, and seized 3 firearms and over 300 rounds of ammunition. Nationally, 243 guns were seized, and drugs were confiscated during 201 arrests. Task force members also arrested 154 gang members, 162 homicide suspects, and 553 sex offenders, and cleared 4,291 drug cases. Operation FALCON coincided with the beginning of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “National Crime Victims’ Rights Week,” the theme of which is “Justice isn’t served until crime victims are.” During his remarks announcing the results of Operation FALCON U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez praised the efforts of the participating agencies, noting that targeting violent criminals not only provides justice for the victims of those crimes, but also ensures safer communities. “By taking violent fugitives off the streets and putting them behind bars where they belong”, said General Gonzalez, “we’ve honored the victims in a way never realized before and made our streets safer.” Fugitives whose cases were adopted by Operation FALCON were sought by the Marshals Service, other federal agencies, United States Attorneys and courts at every level of government. Additionally, Operation FALCON task force members handled cases referred by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as those of foreign fugitives believed to be in this country. The Marshals Service also received support from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) at the Department of Justice. Interpol and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service assisted in the investigations of persons wanted by law enforcement worldwide. Sixteen foreign and international fugitives who were arrested during Operation FALCON now face deportation or extradition proceedings. One of New York States’ 100 Most Wanted Fugitives, Gary Jackson, was captured on 4/05/2005 in Jacksonville, Fl by US. Marshals based on leads developed in New York. Jackson was wanted for homicide by the NYPD for beating his former girlfriend to death in the stairwell of a Bronx apartment building. The arrest was made due to the information received on New York States’ “100 Most Wanted hotline, 1-800-262-4321. Jackson was returned to the Bronx on Saturday 4/09/2005. Another New York violent fugitive felon captured was repeat parole violator Arthur Caesar. Caesar was involved in the raping, sodomizing, and robbing of a 15 year old girl that took place over the course of an hour. He was arrested by the New York City Police Department. On 4/5/2005 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested a total of 19 fugitives during an arrest sweep which was part of an OCEDEFT case called “OPERATION CATFISH”. The fugitives were part of a transnational cocaine smuggling organization that were responsible for importing an unspecified amount of cocaine concealed in cargo shipments of frozen fish and laundering narcotics proceeds back to Guyana. Eugene J. Corcoran, U.S. Marshal for the Eastern District of New York expressed his deep appreciation to officers from every agency that participated in Operation FALCON. “I applaud the achievements of every deputy Marshal, police officer, detective, trooper, investigator, deputy sheriff, and special agent who hit the street virtually around-the-clock for seven days. Also of note is that during the course of this initiative, there were no serious incidents or serious injuries to either law enforcement officers or those who were taken into custody’ PHOTOS/VIDEO AVAILABLE The Marshals’ Office of Public Affairs has photos of actual arrests during the Operation available to press at www.usmarshals.gov, as well as fact sheets on arrests nationwide and in each of the agency’s 94 Districts. A five-minute B-roll video package for broadcasters will be available for satellite distribution on April 14 at 2:30 pm EDT (11:30 am PDT) and 4:45 pm EDT (1:45pm PDT), at these C-Band coordinates IA 6 T-15, Downlink Frequency: 4000 V 93 degrees WL. PARTICIPATING AGENCIES A complete list of all of the federal, state, and local agencies that participated in Operation FALCON is available at the Marshals Service website at www.usmarshals.gov.
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