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 Savannah,
GA – A Bristol, GA man wanted on two counts of Sexual Battery on a Child
by the Broward County, Florida, Sheriff’s Department was arrested by the
United States Marshals Service, Savannah Office of the Southeast Regional
Fugitive Task Force and the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department on October 9,
2012.
Joel Beal Smith, 59, was wanted by the Broward County Sheriff’s Department
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for two count of Sexual Battery on a Child. The
Broward County Sheriff’s Department is a member agency on the Florida
Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Florida Regional Task Force generated
information that Smith was possibly living in the Bristol, Georgia area of
Wayne County, Georgia. The case was then forwarded to the U.S. Marshals
Savannah Office of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Savannah
Task Force conducted a 2 and ½ week investigation and determined where they
thought Smith was staying in Bristol, GA. On October 5, 2012, Savannah Task
Force members and Wayne County deputies went to the location and arrested
Smith without incident. Smith was taken to the Wayne County Jail to await
extradition proceedings to send him back to south Florida.
Annually, investigations carried out by the U.S. Marshals result in the
apprehension of over 36, 000 federal fugitives. More federal fugitives are
arrested by the Marshals Service than all other federal agencies combined.
In 2011, U.S. Marshals led task forces arrested more than 86,000 state and
local fugitives, which cleared over 113,000 warrants.
The Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force has three offices:
Atlanta, Macon, and Savannah. The task force covers the whole state of
Georgia. The Savannah Office of the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force
is a team comprised of investigators from the Georgia Department of
Corrections, the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department, the Savannah Chatham
Metropolitan Police Department, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles,
the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Department, the Liberty County Sheriff’s
Department, the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Department, the Beaufort County
Sheriff’s Department, and the United States Marshals Service. The task force
objective is to seek out and arrest fugitives charged with violent crimes,
drug crimes, sex offenders, and other felonies.
Additional
information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at
http://www.usmarshals.gov.
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