Puerto Rico Top 10 Most Wanted Captured by NY/NJ Regional Fugitive Task Force

San Juan, PR - The U.S. Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Fugitive Task Force, acting on information provided by the U.S. Marshals Service Violent Offenders Task Force out of the district of Puerto Rico, arrested Justo Bermudez Stevens in the Bronx today. Bermudez Stevens was on the Puerto Rico Top Ten Most Wanted list since a federal grand jury returned an indictment in September on 66 individuals allegedly involved in a violent drug trafficking gang operating in Ponce.

It's alleged that Bermudez Stevens is one of the principal leaders of a major drug trafficking organization that controlled the wholesale drug distribution in the southern part of the island. Bermudez Stevens is also wanted by the State authorities for multiple murder charges and is suspected of participating in several other murders during the drug trafficking war to control the illicit operations.

"Thanks to the collaborations between district offices and the quick response by the U.S. Marshals led New York/ New Jersey Fugitive Task Force, this violent fugitive was captured without incident. It is only a matter of time before we catch them, and as the federal government's primary agency for fugitive investigations, we will continue to hunt other fugitives and bring them to justice as well," said Orlando Rivera, U.S. Marshal for the district of Puerto Rico.

The USMS is the nation's oldest and most versatile law enforcement agency. In 2012, The U.S. Marshals and their task forces arrested more than 123,000 fugitives of which over 86,000 of them were state and local fugitives, nearly 4,000 were homicide suspects and more than 5,000 of them were violent gang members.