A four day roundup yielded quite a crop of fugitives in the Wilmington area this week. 220 people were arrested, from violent criminals to probation absconders.
Robert Chavis has been wanted for assault and larceny since 1986. He was arrested in this week’s roundup.
The US Marshals and Wilmington Police took the lead in trying to trim a growing stack of arrest warrants. US Marshals Clyde Cook said, “You set the wrong tone if you don’t do something about that. And we aim to do something about it. We’re dusting off warrants from here, there and yonder.”
Dust them off they did, in a coordinated four day fugitive sweep that took months of planning by Wilmington detectives. “So that when those teams went out they weren’t running around the city willy nilly,” said Deputy Chief David Conklin. “They had a focused area they worked on and they were able to zero in on particular people in those areas.”
People like probation absconder Rachel Godwin, whose original offense was possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Also John Allinen, who was wanted for 39 counts of worthless checks dating back to 2004.
“It’s a pretty phenomenal number to get in one four day period,” said Conklin.
Cook added, “We’ve got some more unserved warrants. We’re coming.”
Both Conklin and Cook praised the inter-agency cooperation as a key to the operation’s success.