For Immediate Release

Lafayette, LA – Last night at around midnight the U.S. Marshals Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF) in Lafayette along with the U.S. Marshals Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force (GCRFTF) from New Orleans arrested forty-six (46) year-old Junior Weston at the twenty-three hundred block of South Claiborne in New Orleans. Earlier that day Detectives with the Patterson Police Department secured a 1st Degree Murder Warrant against Weston and shortly thereafter contacted the U.S. Marshals VOTF from Lafayette for assistance. VOTF immediately joined forces with Patterson PD and learned that Weston had fled Patterson and was believed to be in the Central City area of New Orleans. VOTF contacted the US Marshals in New Orleans who immediately put “boots on the ground” in a covert manner in an effort to locate Weston. After about six hours of investigating it was decided that a 5-Man Team from Lafayette would drive to New Orleans to join forces with our counterparts there. Finally, at around midnight (this morning), after approximately nine hours of intense investigating, Weston was located in a house on South Claiborne in New Orleans. Weston was arrested without incident.

Henry Whitehorn, the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Louisiana, said, “The coordinated effort of all law enforcement to bring dangerous criminals to justice ensures that the streets and neighborhoods of Louisiana are a safer place to raise our children.”

The Western District of Louisiana’s Violent Offender Task Force (VOTF) in Lafayette is a team comprised of full-time law enforcement officers from the Lafayette City Marshals, Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, Lafayette Police Department, St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, and Louisiana Probation and Parole. Further, VOTF Lafayette calls upon part-time TFO’s and partners throughout its eight parish area. In 2011 VOTF Lafayette closed approximately 500 Warrants, most of which were violent felony offenses. Further, U.S. Marshals Task Forces throughout the United States closed more than 113,000 felony warrants nationwide.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.

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