War Story: The Name Dropping Fugitive

Editor’s Note: from time to time we’ll catch one of Jim Cavanaugh’s “War Stories” shared on social media. His tales from days serving in law enforcement are too good to miss, and he has agreed to allow us to share them with Brownwood News readers.

Written by Jim Cavanaugh – This particular fugitive investigation had entertainment value for the Bureau. The DEA had a “Top 10” list similar to the FBI list. One of their most wanted fugitives was assigned to FBI Agent Jay Miller in Ft. Pierce and he was busting his hump in an effort to locate the guy.

The agent had developed informants and relatives that were giving him good information on the fugitive’s location, but every time he tried to make an arrest, the guy was gone. It didn’t take long for him to smell a rat.

The agent had been in close contact with a couple of DEA agents that had had the case before it was assigned to the FBI. As a matter of courtesy, the agent had kept the DEA agents informed on how the hunt was coming. He even invited the DEA agents along on a couple of the attempts to make an arrest. Every time, the fugitive would have moved before they got there and the agent would have to begin the hunt all over again. Thankfully, he never told the DEA agents where he was getting his information, or they might have been killed.

One evening Tony and I were asked to join Miller in a very discrete surveillance. He hadn’t told the DEA a thing about the information and wanted only Bureau agents involved. His fugitive had a girlfriend that would occasionally drive to meet him for a weekend tryst. This weekend she had packed her bags and was going to head out. We had no idea where, but about six of us packed bags and prepared for a long weekend.

We took up the surveillance as the girl left her condo. For several hours she drove all over the place and back-tracked to be sure no one was following. We did a good job that night and about 3 a.m. she pulled into an apartment project. We followed her straight to a unit in the complex and were having a meeting in one of the parking lots to discuss how we planned on getting the bad guy out with the least amount of problems.

Out of the blue the fugitive walks outside to get his girlfriend’s suitcase.

We jumped him while he was carrying them back to the apartment and his hands were full. He had one gun in his waistband and a couple of others inside the apartment. The funny thing was that once we had him in cuffs, all he could yell was for us to call Agent “so-n-so” from DEA; that we had made a major mistake in arresting him.

He was throwing out the DEA agents’ names so fast that the Ft. Pierce agent couldn’t keep count.

He was sure of one thing: the DEA had been lying to him all along. The names of the agents were the same names he had been briefing about the previous locations when the arrest failed to materialize.

Miller was not happy. He wanted blood and between the six of us, we came up with a really neat plan.

The DEA agents who had been lying to him were assigned to the West Palm Beach office of the DEA. We all knew them. We’d see them several times a week in the building. We also knew that they arrived at their office about 8:30 a.m. each morning and that they parked in the underground garage.

Agent Miller and two others pulled into the garage with the prisoner and sat.

Tony and I waited outside until we saw the first DEA car pulling up to the touch pad that opened the door. We walked over and had a simple casual conversation with him and quickly determined he had no idea that we had arrested his fugitive buddy. The second DEA agent pulled up behind him and Tony and I waved a pleasant “Good Morning” and walked back to the front door of the building.

Once inside we pushed the elevator button and held the car. The Ft. Pierce agent and the others already in the underground garage exited their cars as the DEA agents parked. They hauled the fugitive out just as the DEA guys were walking towards the entry door.

Tony and I stood in the doorway and listened to the commentary.

The fugitive was screaming at the DEA agents by name to come explain and get him cut lose. He had told Miller on the ride back to the Federal Building that he had been a snitch for the DEA for over a year. He had been living in the Bahamas by paying bribes to the officials. Two DEA agents had found him and flipped him. Their deal was he would snitch out on all the other major smugglers and they would turn their head to his deals. Once he was named to their Most Wanted list and they were forced to turn him over to the Bureau, they kept him informed of anything they learned about the hunt. Even while the hunt was going on, two of the agents had been meeting with him in the Bahamas on a regular basis.

As the screaming and yelling went on, it turned ugly when the fugitive realized that the DEA humps were in no position to assist him. They ran for the elevators, hoping to ride up with him and tell him to shut his mouth, but Tony and I said the car was reserved and they could wait. Even as the door was closing the fugitive wanted to tell the Ft. Pierce agent all about the deal he had with DEA.

We took him to our office and kept him under wraps until his appearance before the US Magistrate (my partner’s wife). Of course she had been fully briefed by the time of the hearing and was armed and ready to go.

The DEA supervisor and the two agents were sitting in the gallery, wanting to overhear the hearing, but the Magistrate suggested they may wish to retain their own counsel as she intended to refer the incident to their Internal Affairs Office and to the Department of Justice for possible perjury charges.

It seems that the two agents had previously appeared before her regarding this guy and had testified that they had no information as to his location and had never had any contact with him in over two years. That story was coming apart at the seams now.

I never heard if they were indicted themselves, but both were immediately transferred, as was the office supervisor. The Bureau severed all contact with the DEA office and declined to share any intelligence from that point on.

It stayed that way for almost a decade.