MOST ELUSIVE FUGITIVES AMONG HUNDREDS HELD

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) A four-month effort to round up fugitive drug-trafficking
suspects netted 1,015 arrests and $1 million in seized property, federal
authorities said Friday.

The effort, led by the Marshals Service with state and other federal
agencies, targeted suspects considered some of the most elusive. Many were
alleged high-level drug dealers from the United States and the Caribbean who
had been indicted but never were arrested or who had jumped bail.

``They were lost for as long as they were because they are good at it,''
said U.S. Marshals Service Director John Marshall.

Among those captured were an alleged drug trafficker suspected in the deaths
of two government informants; an alleged marijuana supplier accused of
setting up an elaborate indoor farm and a man charged with using drug money
to provide automatic weapons to Colombian dealers.

``These are not your low-level street dealers,'' said U.S. Attorney Donna
Bucella.

Officials said the arrested fugitives now in custody are from Jamaica, the
Dominican Republic and other parts of the Caribbean and several U.S. states.

The U.S. Marshals Service began the searches four months ago after compiling
a list of their most elusive fugitives.