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The U.S. Marshals Service’s South West Investigative Fugitive Team (SWIFT) task force began just two and a half years ago in Farmington and last Friday hit a milestone with its 1,000th arrest, the Marshals Service said in a news release.
Wesley McNeal was arrested in Aztec on a warrant from La Plata County, Colo., for alleged identity theft, the release said.
The marshals service opened an office in Farmington in 2010 with just one deputy and began partnerships with other local law enforcement agencies, and since then the SWIFT task force has grown to include and work with the Farmington Police Department, San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, the Bloomfield Police Department, Region II Narcotics, Region II Gang Task Force, Jicarilla Apache Police Department, Navajo Nation Narcotics Unit, New Mexico State Police and New Mexico Probation and Parole.
The SWIFT task force receives requests almost weekly for fugitives jumping back and forth across state lines in the Four Corners area, and the request to find and arrest McNeal came from Colorado authorities.
The Marshals Service SWIFT task force now operates throughout New Mexico and has a main office in Albuquerque with sub offices in Santa Fe, Farmington, Roswell and Las Cruces.
Each office works with local law enforcement and has representatives of those agencies working full time on the task force as Task Force Officers (TFOs), who are special deputies working alongside U.S. deputy marshals, and the task force travels throughout New Mexico to track down and apprehend violent fugitives, according to the release.
