MEDIA RELEASE
Date: July 20, 2009
Time: 9:00 PM
Local Fugitive Arrested In North Carolina
Bronson, Florida – Fugitive on the run captured in North Carolina for marijuana indoor grow house in Levy County.
The U.S. Marshals Service and the Levy County Sheriff's Office working together as part of the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force (FRFTF) tracked down and arrested major case federal fugitive, John Roger Sager at a campground in Canton North Carolina on Friday, July 17, 2009.
The search for Sager began a little over a one year ago when Sager went on the run. On April 22, 2008 a federal arrest warrant was issued for Sager in the Gainesville Division of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida on an indictment charging Sager with conspiracy to manufacture and to posses with the intent to distribute more than 1000 marijuana plants. The charges were the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) during which DEA and the Levy County Sheriff's Office seized a total of more than 1000 marijuana plants from the searches of three separate properties in the Williston area.
Investigators directed the search for Sager to several locations throughout the Country as well as areas outside the United States before focusing on North Carolina as a possible location for him. Investigators ultimately narrowed the search to an area in Canton, North Carolina between Asheville and Waynesville, where Sager was found living in a travel trailer.
Deputy Marshals and Levy County Sheriff's Deputies Rick Rogers and Rob Bowers, specially deputized by the U.S. Marshals Service, traveled to Asheville on 07/14/2009 for the search of Sager. Two days into their search investigators learned about a person fitting Sager's description living in a trailer at an area campground. Deputies went to the Riverside Campground, 6 Happy Camper Drive and established surveillance where Sager was identified and arrested after being lured to the front office. He had been renting a lot since April 2009 and paying in cash under the alias, Art Desrouches.
A search warrant was obtained for the trailer after the arrest by DEA agents who discovered among other things $12,135.00 cash, seven separate cellular telephones and two sets of aircraft communication equipment. Sager was transported to the U.S. Marshals Office in Asheville and is scheduled to have an initial appearance and be arraigned in federal court on Monday 07/20/2009 before being returned to the Northern District of Florida to face his charges.
The U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Gainesville is sponsored by the U.S. Marshals Service and is comprised of investigators from the Levy County Sheriff's Office, Alachua County Sheriff's Office, Gainesville Police Department, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Chiefland Police Department, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
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