U.S. Marshal Chief Inspector Robert Fernandez is the commander of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Since its creation in 2004, the unit has captured nearly 19,000 fugitives.
What’s the biggest challenge?
There are about 150 task force officers in six offices, and I have to make sure they have what they need. We’re not only in Washington, D.C. — our area extends from northern Maryland and reaches out to western Virginia and down to the Tidewater area.
What’s the biggest reward?
The biggest reward is the satisfaction that I feel when we arrest a particularly dangerous and violent fugitive.
Who’s the biggest suspect that you caught?
There have been several, but in the mid-’90s, I was going after a fugitive wanted on four murder charges. He was a hit man enforcer for a high-level drug dealer in D.C.
The fugitive had allegedly killed up to 12 people. We tracked him to an apartment in Southeast, and, with the D.C. SWAT team, arrested him in bed.
We found a machine gun, a shotgun and a loaded handgun under his pillow, which turned out to be the one he used in two of the murders. He’s doing about 80 years. I think I’ll be 110 when he gets out.
Who was the hardest person to capture?
I was in Puerto Rico about 10 years ago helping to start a fugitive task force there. I was assigned a case of a guy who had murdered his wife and cut her head off. I searched for him for a month with no luck. It was really frustrating because back then, Puerto Rico lacked the infrastructure, law enforcement collaboration and the resources that we have here in the States when it comes to hunting fugitives.
It was slow and agonizing, but after about a month, we got a break and found information that placed him in Ohio. We flew to Cleveland and the next day, spotted him driving by one of the target addresses.
He was surprised to see us, but he was more shocked to see Puerto Rican homicide detectives in Cleveland putting handcuffs on him.
