{"id":41575,"date":"2016-11-04T13:49:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-04T17:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=41575"},"modified":"2016-11-04T13:49:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T17:49:25","slug":"one-of-lee-countys-10-most-wanted-apprehended","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2016\/11\/one-of-lee-countys-10-most-wanted-apprehended\/","title":{"rendered":"One Of Lee County\u2019s 10 Most Wanted Apprehended"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Written by LCSO<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_41576\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-41576\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-41576\" title=\"Joel Mercado\" src=\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Joel-Mercado-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Joel-Mercado-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Joel-Mercado.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-41576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joel Mercado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It all started with an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0morning, and culminated with six hours of persistent investigation and searching, but one of Lee County\u2019s 10 most wanted fugitives is finally behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>Members of the US Marshals Fugitive Warrants Task Force immediately acted on a tip on Thursday, November 3 on the whereabouts of wanted fugitive Joel Mercado (DOB 2\/25\/83).\u00a0 Mercado had been on the run since January on multiple charges of drug trafficking.\u00a0 Mercado managed to flee from his original location, however Marshals kept their focus on the target throughout the day, and just after\u00a03:30 p.m.\u00a0yesterday afternoon, they finally apprehended the elusive offender.<\/p>\n<p>Mercado was placed on Crime Stoppers 10 Most Wanted list earlier this year on the cocaine trafficking charges.\u00a0 Yesterday\u2019s arrest is Mercado\u2019s 20th\u00a0in Lee County, with previous jail time for battery on a person age 65 or older, weapons charges and resisting arrest, among others.\u00a0 His rap sheet shows that he\u2019s been an active dealer of both cocaine and marijuana on the streets of Lee County since 2002.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur appreciation goes out to the efforts of the US Marshals Fugitive Warrants Task Force, and the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s Fugitive Warrants Unit for their persistence in ensuring that Joel Mercado wouldn\u2019t slip through the cracks and evade arrest,\u201d said Trish Routte, Crime Stoppers Coordinator.\u00a0 \u201cAfter nearly 11 months on the run, Mr. Mercado finally came up for air, and detectives were ready to greet him when he did.\u00a0 Yesterday\u2019s effort is an example of teamwork and dedication, and in the end, justice was served.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mercado was charged with two counts of trafficking cocaine, as well as one count of Failure to Appear for a felony offense.\u00a0 He is currently being held without bond in the Lee County Jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by LCSO It all started with an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip\u00a0on Thursday\u00a0morning, and culminated with six hours of persistent investigation and searching, but one of Lee County\u2019s 10 most&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":41576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}