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MILITARY & VETERANS AFFAIRS |
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| RELEASE:
IMMEDIATE (27 August 2002) |
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On July 21, 2002, personnel and aircraft
from the New Jersey Army National Guard were called upon to serve yet
another mission … assisting the U.S. Marshals Service in the transport
of high threat prisoners. Three fugitives were arrested in South Philadelphia
on July 20th, 2002 following a two-hour standoff with U.S. Marshals and
the Philadelphia Police Department SWAT team. Due to the extremely violent
history of the prisoners, law enforcement authorities deemed it safest
to transport them back to the District of Columbia to face charges via
air.
Following a formal request for support from the Deputy U.S. Marshal in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and with the approval of the National Guard Bureau at the Pentagon, a UH-60 Blackhawk and crew from the Jersey Army Guard transported the three prisoners named in a 324 count indictment from the District of Columbia. Among the prisoners was a “drug kingpin” on the Marshal’s “15 Most Wanted” list. Charges against the fugitives included narcotics conspiracy, robbery, armed assault, kidnapping, murder, and burglary. Four armed marshals escorted the shackled prisoners during the flight from Philadelphia to our nation’s capital. New Jersey’s Army Aviation assets, in addition to their normal combat training activity, state emergency operations missions, and support of Drug Interdiction and Homeland Security operations also have been tasked to perform other “non-traditional” missions in recent months. Guard helicopters and crews assisted the FBI in their bio-terrorism investigation by transporting anthrax samples to the Army’s Medical Research & Materiel Command Analysis facility at Ft Detrick, Maryland. |
