We have new details on a recent operation that put 135 felons back behind bars.
"It really took a lot of effort though and support from different agency heads,” says U.S. Marshal Gary Schofield.
At a press conference Wednesday, the U.S. Marshal for the District of Nevada thanked the 21 agencies involved in Operation STAR.
The three week long operation targeted sex offenders, gang members, and other fugitives.
The Marshal says there's any easy way for people to avoid the next one.
"They can turn themselves into clergy, they can turn themselves into any law enforcement agency. They can turn themselves into us. But if they choose to run, they should know that we will be relentless in our pursuit to bring them to justice."
As part of the operation, they also did 535 sex offender registration checks.
A list of some of those arrest and their charges are below:
Jeremiah SWENSON Sex Offender Viol
Michael GRANT Sex Off Fail/Traf/Poss of Drugs
Alenjandro BARAJAS Sex Off Fail
Juan FLORES FTA Agg Assault
Kristopher ZIMMERMAN Sex Off Viol/FTA Batt w/Deadly Weapon
Andrew ROBERTS Dangerous Drugs
Chatobrinnia TORRES Felony Fraud
Misael MONTALVO Felony Fraud
Kyle BOWERS FTA/Fraud
Weston ANDREWS Fraud
Yanetsy LOPEZ Gambling
Tami WHITE FTA Trafficking C/S; New Trafficking charge
Gabriel SANCHEZ Parole Viol
Nicholas CALHOUN Parole Viol
Chase WANT Parole Viol
Mariko ANDREAS Parole Viol
Terra LOUGHRIDGE Parole Viol
Ricky BRUCE Parole Viol/Trafficking/Poss of Drugs
David REEVES Parole Viol
Sandra REALES Robbery/Immigration
Cesar GARCIA-FEREZ Immigration
Ricardo VASQUEZ Immigration
James WEIKEL Felony DUI
Selvin ZECINA Sex Assault of a Minor
Ryan MCKENDRY-VERHUNCE Supervised Release Viol
Christopher HALLMARK Pretrial Viol
Amber HITCHCOCK FTA (Fraud)
One of the arrests was made after almost a year of searching.
Selvin Zecena-Valdez was wanted after he failed to appear in court. He was being charged with multiple counts of sexual assault of a minor.
Zecena-Valdez had bailed out of jail before his trial in October of 2016 and failed to appear after he elected to testify on his own behalf. The trial proceeded and he was found guilty.
Police had been searching for him for almost a year when he was found through Operation STAR.
For more information on the U.S. Marshals Service, visit http://www.usmarshals.gov.
(The U.S. Marshals Service contributed to this report).
