Captured: Last Week's Fugitive Of The Week

The U.S. Marshals Service – NH Joint Fugitive Task Force is very pleased to announce the arrest of “Fugitive of the Week,” Michael Lee Rand in Rochester on Saturday.

Rand, 34, was on supervised release after being convicted in U.S. District Court for the sale of synthetic narcotics (fentanyl). However, Rand violated the supervision requirements when he changed addresses without alerting the courts. Rand was last known to live in Rochester, NH, and the court issued an arrest warrant on Sept 9 after repeated efforts by U.S. Probation Officers to contact Rand were not returned.

The U.S. Marshal’s featured Rand as the NH “Fugitive of the Week” on Sept. 14, and officers from the Rochester Police Department identified Rand during an encounter Saturday morning. Rand initially tried to avoid identifying himself, but he was taken into custody without further incident or charges.

As part of this feature as the “Fugitive of the Week,” Rand had been aired on WTPL-FM, WNTK-FM, WTSN-FM, WEMJ-FM, The Union Leader, The Nashua Telegraph, The Patch, Foster’s Daily Democrat, Manchester Information, the Manchester Ink Link, the Rochester Voice and prominently featured on the internet. The “Fugitive of the Week” continues to be a very successful tool that has resulted in the location and arrest of numerous fugitives since its creation in 2007. Additionally, the “Fugitive of the Week” was distributed statewide to all law enforcement officers in New Hampshire.

The U.S. Marshals Service would like to thank the Rochester Police Department, as our local, county and state counterparts are the bedrock of law enforcement in this country. We are always grateful for the sacrifices they make to keep the communities we live in safe.

Since the inception of the U.S. Marshals - New Hampshire Joint Fugitive Task Force in 2002, these partnerships have resulted in over 8,542 arrests (Updated as of 12/31/2021). These arrests have ranged in seriousness from murder, assault, unregistered sex offenders, probation and parole violations and numerous other serious offenses. Nationally the United States Marshals Service fugitive programs are carried out with local law enforcement in 94 district offices, 85 local fugitive task forces, 8 regional task forces, as well as a growing network of offices in foreign countries.

Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.