Marshals Net Nearly 11,000 Fugitives

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, left, looks on as John F. Clark, director of the U.S. Marshals Service, speaks to reporters at the Justice Department in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2006 to announce that nearly 11,000 sex offenders, gang members and other fugitives were swept up in what the Justice Department called a sting targeting the "worst of the worst" criminals on the run. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) (Charles Dharapak - AP)

In upstate New York, some fugitives tried to hide in unusual places.

"We grabbed one guy out of the shower," said Joe Ciccarelli, supervisor of the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force in New York's northern district. "We found people hiding in between insulation, rolled up in rugs, inside of cabinets, inside of closets that a person shouldn't be able to fit in, but they end up fitting in and we have had to call the fire department to get them out."

Of the sex offenders nabbed, 971 had failed to register with authorities as required by law _ what Gonzales called the largest number ever captured in a single law enforcement effort.

Gonzales said prosecutors likely would seek to charge some of them under the 2006 Adam Walsh Act. That law, approved by Congress last summer, created federal penalties for sex offenders who fail register with communities.

The law was named for six-year-old Adam Walsh, who was abducted from a Florida shopping mall and murdered in 1981.

Falcon III showed the Marshals "have proven their extraordinary ability to quickly capture thousands of sexual predators," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Normally, the Marshals regional task forces round up about 1,000 fugitives each week, officials said. An estimated 1 million fugitives are on the loose nationwide.

___

Associated Press Writer William Kates in Syracuse, N.Y., contributed to this report.