Fugitives: A Fistful of Collars

"Congratulations! You are the winner of a weekend retreat in the Bahamas. Enclosed please find your champagne-flight boarding pass." So began an apparent promotional letter from Puno Aero Tours to some 200 seemingly lucky Floridians. On the appointed day, the letter continued, the winners would be picked up for a ride to the airport in limousines. They were indeed picked up -- by federal marshals masquerading as chauffeurs. The would-be vacationers, handcuffed within moments after climbing into the cars, were all fugitives, wanted on charges ranging from embezzlement and grand theft to rape. Puno Aero Tours was a front for a sting operation by the U.S. Marshals Service's Fugitive Investigative Strike Team (FIST).

The vacation sting was part of an eleven-week Florida roundup in which the marshals and local police forces successfully tracked down 3,816 fugitives. Although most of the arrests resulted from more conventional police tactics, the Puno ploy and similar lures helped to collar violent criminals without anyone being injured. "Scams usually work very well with this type of fugitive," said U.S. Marshal Jerry Bullock, "because their entire lives are devoted to getting something for nothing."