A historic day for law enforcement nationwide, had a significant impact in Southeastern Oklahoma.   Operation Falcon II, led by U.S. Marshals, netted thousands of arrests across the western half of the country.  The week-long sting focused on capturing sex predators and wanted fugitives.

Today, U.S. Marshals visited Durant, commending Bryan County officials on their contributions.  From April 17 through the 23, law enforcement agencies of all levels participated in operation Falcon II.  Determined to bring violent sex criminals to justice, officers in Bryan County united, coming down hard on fugitives.

In 27 states law enforcement raided homes, made traffic stops and even swarmed hotels to clean up thousands of existing warrants.  Mirroring the efforts of a year ago when U.S. Marshals conducted Falcon I, teams arrested sex offenders, gang members and other wanted felons.  Twenty-five different departments in Eastern, Oklahoma captured over 500 fugitives.  Local task forces working with the marshals talked about the operation.

"With law enforcement at the local state and federal levels it is absolutley essential that we all work in one accord and in cooperation with one another, and this operation is a prime example of that," said David Ross, Durant OHP. 

"Most of them will tell you that they're just doing their jobs, but just doing their jobs most likely saved or impacted many lives in a positive way that can't be calculated," John Loyd, U.S. Marshals said.

Loyd also said the raids yielded over a hundred guns, thousands in cash and opened doors to even more illegal activity in the area.  The highest priority was given to sexual predators and unregistered sex offenders, since these issues top the list of local problems.

The U.S. Marshals say operation Falcon II is the most ambitious endeavor in their 216 year history.