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2,500 Fugitives Captured In Florida, 200 In Tampa Area

News Channel 8 photo by ERIC HAUSMANN

At the federal courthouse in Tampa today, U.S. Marshals Service Deputy Director Brian Beckwith discusses Operation Orange Crush.

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

Updated: 09/18/2008 08:46 pm

TAMPA - Nearly 2,500 fugitives – including almost 200 from the Tampa Bay area – were arrested in a statewide roundup over 10 weeks as part of a focused effort on Florida, the U.S. Marshals Service said this morning.

Operation Orange Crush was funded through $2.8 million secured in 2007 by U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, officials said. The operation – the first of its kind for the Marshals Service – involved that agency coordinating with dozens of federal, local and state law enforcement officers to track violent fugitives.

Brian Beckwith, deputy director of the Marshals Service, said he hoped the effort's success would help the service appeal to Congress for additional funding to expand the number of fugitive task forces nationwide.

"We wanted to have a concentrated effort in Florida to show what we can do," Beckwith said.

The operation ran from July 7 through Sept. 12, with bases in Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa. The Marshals Service dispatched 28 deputy marshals from California, Alabama, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New Mexico to Florida for the initiative, said Thomas Figmik, chief of the Marshals Service office in the Middle District of Florida.

The Marshals Service also provided radio communications equipment and access to databases to assist investigators in tracking fugitives, Beckwith said.

Authorities arrested 2,497 fugitives who were wanted on 2,959 warrants. They included 113 people apprehended on homicide charges, 117 people wanted on weapons charges, 255 sex offenders and 55 people identified as gang members, officials said.

Of the total arrested, 179 had been sought in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Manatee and Sarasota counties. They include Peter Joseph Rosato Jr., 51, formerly of Dunedin, who has been wanted since 1999, when he failed to appear for trial on burglary and sexual battery charges in the attack on the 85-year-old Pinellas woman, officials said. Rosato now is being extradited to Pinellas County from Alaska, jail records show.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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