Operation Falcon (Federal Dragnet)
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Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally) was the name of a weeklong dragnet organized by the United States Marshals Service between April 4 and April 10, 2005 (also Crime Victims' Rights Week). A total of 10,340 federal fugitives were arrested in the fifty U.S. states, as well as Puerto Rico and Guam, by some 3,000 to 10,000 law enforcement officials from such agencies as the ATF, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.
FALCON netted the largest number of arrests ever recorded during a single operation. This included the arrests of 162 accused or convicted of murder, 638 wanted for armed robbery, 553 wanted for rape or sexual assault, 154 gang members, and 106 unregistered sex offenders. The greatest category of arrests (4,291) was for narcotics violations. Other large classes of wanted fugitives arrested included 1818 burglary suspects and 1727 assault suspects. In addition to the arrests, 243 weapons, 30kg of cocaine, 19 kg of heroin, 204 kg of marijuana and $373,000 in cash was seized by Operation FALCON teams.
Although the Marshals Service provided coordination for the sweep, most of the manpower for the arrests came from local law enforcement: 206 state law enforcement agencies, 302 county sheriffs' departments, and 366 city police departments were involved, as well as 25 federal agencies and all 83 districts of the U.S. Marshals Service, which allocated about $900,000 to the operation.
