Samantha Stewart lived under skies darkened by plane arrivals and departures, in the shadow of people going places. “This efficiency here and cohesion is so good because these guys are a tight-knit group,” said Kenneth Lehr, commanding officer of the NYPD’s Fugitive Enforcement Division and a member of the task force. The local task forces, in turn, provide intimate knowledge of their state or city’s particular crime problems, as well as a deep pool of experienced recruits.įor the Chelsea-based city division of the NY/NJ RFTF - a unit whose group also includes police and prosecutors from Yonkers, Westchester County and New Jersey - that means 24 of the most proven warrant investigators the NYPD has to offer, along with 30 feds. In addition to its national connections and deep-pocketed help from the federal government, the group has been authorized by the US Marshals Service to make arrests in all 50 states as opposed to just its local jurisdictions. With the regional group serving as a blueprint, there are now seven Regional Fugitive Task Forces around the country, with an eighth on the way, McMahon said.Īs in any fruitful partnership, the RFTF combines the unique advantages of each level of law enforcement into a sum greater than its parts. As of its 15-year anniversary report issued last year, the NY/NJ RFTF had arrested more than 69,000 fugitives, including nearly 5,000 gang members, and seized more than 1,500 guns, 8,500 kilograms of narcotics and $16 million in ill-gotten US currency. 'Terrified' family of woman killed by prison escapee under 24-hour securityĬonvicted killer escaped prison with daring climb between 2 walls onto roofĭesperate manhunt: Cops trying to 'stress' out escaped killer in a game of 'hide and seek'Ĭops play audio of escaped inmate's mom in bid to end desperate manhunt to capture the worst of the worst fugitives around the country.’’ start teaming up with your state and local partners. Edward McMahon, who has been with the NY/NJ RFTF since its inception. “It was basically after 9/11 the federal government started to say, ‘We want to start sharing information, and we don’t want to have any more of these turf wars,’ ” said US Marshals Service Deputy Cmdr. The mural is a constant reminder of both the places the task force is willing to go and the modern patriotic time during which it was founded. One of the lone splashes of character - color, even - in the group’s Chelsea hideaway is a floor-to-ceiling rendering of a windswept American flag, the stars painted along one wall of the main room, the bars curling at a corner onto part of another. “Within about three and a half hours, went home and got their bags and were wheels up.” “ ‘Listen, if your wives will let you, get on the next plane, get on the red-eye,’ ” NYPD Lt. The law enforcement squad’s target on this particular summer afternoon is suspected “Dating-App Strangler” Danueal Drayton, wanted for murdering one woman in Queens and raping another online suitor in Brooklyn in a matter of hours.Īfter days of sleuthing, they come to the conclusion that Drayton may be hiding out clear across the country, in Hollywood. They are a team of modern-day minutemen, willing to stop everything when they have a lead on a suspect and pursue their quarry to the farthest ends of the country at the drop of a dime. It’s a typical late afternoon in Chelsea: Revelers stumble from one trendy bar to the next, sightseers flock to the High Line, gourmands peruse the shelves at Chelsea Market - and four stories above the bustle, members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force are plotting the downfall of a suspected serial killer.įrom its nondescript headquarters in one of New York’s hottest neighborhoods, the RFTF’s city-based detachment - a crack squad of US marshals and some of the NYPD’s brightest investigative minds - has closed thousands of cases since its founding in 2002.
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