CLEVELAND — Hundreds of the country's most dangerous fugitives are now behind bars, thanks to a month-long operation through the U.S. Marshals Service.
Operation North Star was focused on arresting fugitives in 10 cities with higher rates of violent crimes: Albuquerque, N.M.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Jackson, Miss.; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; Oakland, Calif. and Puerto Rico.
During the operation, additional teams and resources were directed to units like the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force, which targeted the most serous offenders wanted for crimes in Cleveland. Investigators focused on finding fugitives who’ve committed offenses such as homicide, forcible sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault.
Brian Nolan is a detective with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department who works full-time with the U.S. Marshals Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. With nearly two decades in law enforcement, he knows it can take patience, plus a lot of research and planning to track down someone who’s on the run.
“The criminals, they put a lot of hard work in so they’re not caught,” Nolan said. “So, then we have to put twice as much work in to catch them.”
When there’s a solid lead for a fugitive, Nolan jumps into action with the task force, taking those known for being dangerous into custody and bringing them to justice.
“Behind these crimes that we’re going out after today, there’s a victim,” he said.
During Operation North Star, he went out with the sheriff department’s warrant unit to work cases. The unit helped the marshals put more teams on the ground in the hope of putting more people wanted for violent crimes under arrest.
“We’re never really starving for work,” said Josh Lowe, supervisor for the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. “It’s always there for us.”
Lowe went out in the field with a different unit, but the teams had the same goal: find fugitives and remove them from the community.
“These are all very complex, thorough fugitive investigations with dozens of man-hours before you even hit the street and go knocking on any doors,” Lowe said.
Cleveland has the highest volume of warrants in the Northern Ohio District, with hundreds of active cases involving violent offenders. The high rate of shootings and homicides prompted the U.S. Marshals Service to select it as one of 10 cities nationwide to participate in the targeted enforcement effort.
As a lifelong Clevelander, Nolan said he’s driven to help make his community safer.
“It’s never gonna be stopped,” he said, talking about crime. “Just hopefully you can have somewhat of an impact. It doesn’t have to be this bad.”
He and his team are not slowing down until every fugitive is caught.
“At the end of it, their luck will run out,” he said. “And we’ll catch ‘em. We always do.”
For four weeks the Marshals Service saturated Cleveland with about double the number of teams they usually have in the field and made more than triple the number of arrests compared to the same time last year.
In Cleveland, 145 fugitives were taken into custody during the operation. Of those 14 were wanted for homicide, 59 for assault, and 17 for sex offenses.
In Columbus, the operation netted 119 arrests, including 14 for homicide, 10 for sexual offenses, and 20 for felonious assault.
Nationwide, 833 people were arrested, including 95 for homicide and 68 for sexual assault. Investigators also seized 181 firearms and more than 160 kilograms of illegal narcotics.
This was the second phase of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Operation North Star, the first took place in 2022 and included 10 major metropolitan areas, including New York City and Los Angeles.