The Fugitive Investigative Strike Team, or FIST operations were a series of operations conducted by the United States Marshals to capture violent

fugitive A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

s wanted by state and federal

law enforcement agencies A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

in the United States. Nine operations were conducted between the years of 1981 and 1986.

History

In October 1979, the

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

transferred the responsibility of investigating and monitoring certain fugitives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the U.S. Marshals Service. 105 U.S. Marshal Deputies were trained as Enforcement Specialists who would oversee investigation and apprehension of fugitives in their respective districts. To support these deputies, the Marshals Service created the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team concept. Fugitive Investigation Strike Teams were meant to bolster districts experiencing a heavy load of fugitive activity. The FIST was made up of a number of investigators who could be deployed in operations to any district in the country in order to investigate and quickly apprehend fugitives. The primary targets of these operations were "Class 1"

offender Offender(s) or The Offender(s) may refer to: *A criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted ...

s, which included escaped federal prisoners, bail jumpers, parole violators and

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

violators. The FIST worked primarily in the United States but also collaborated with foreign officials to apprehend international fugitives, notably in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...

Operations

Nine FIST operations were conducted over five years in Florida, California, the New England states,

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, N ...

, Michigan and the

Southwest United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

. The operations often included stings, such as the Puño Airlines sting.

References

{{reflist Fugitives United States Marshals Service

History

Operations

See also

Further reading

References