The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force captured a wanted man who is being sought in three counties. The capture came while the task force was conducting surveillance of a home on Saleta Street, and they saw fugitive Antwan Jernell Thomas arrive and go inside. Task Force members from Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties aided by patrol and a K9 unit from Escambia converged on the home around 4 p.m. Once inside, Thomas ran from task force officers to the back of the house, trying get rid of what appeared to be multiple bags of drugs. The 32 year-old Thomas was tackled and taken into custody without any further incident. The discarded bags were recovered and later tested positive for and identified as containing marijuana, powder cocaine and oxycodone pills. The five bags of marijuana had a total weight of approximately 70 grams; a bag of cocaine contained 2 grams and another had 5 oxycodone pills. Thomas is wanted in Escambia for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, grand theft of a firearm and misdemeanor battery. Thomas is also wanted in Okaloosa County for a felony failure to appear on a driving while license suspended charge and in Douglas County, Ga., for violation of probation stemming from original charges of cocaine and marijuana trafficking. Thomas remains in Escambia County Jail where additional charges of possession of marijuana, cocaine and oxycodone are pending. Another hard, white substance was also recovered that weighed about 494 grams which is believed to be some sort of synthetic drug. Thomas is also being charged with possession and selling the synthetic substance. 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. As well, among that number of arrests more than 12,000 of them were sex offenders.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Task force nabs fugitive wanted in three counties; marijuana, cocaine and pills Seized