A three-week fugitive apprehension surge led by the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office resulted in 109 arrests and the seizure of three firearms across Maryland and Delaware, officials announced this week.
The operation ran from July 20 through August 5 and involved more than a dozen federal, state and local agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service, Maryland State Police, Delaware State Police, and police departments in Baltimore, Annapolis, Wilmington, Dover and New Castle. It was carried out under Summer Heat 2.0, a nationwide FBI initiative aimed at identifying and apprehending violent offenders. FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said the operation reflected the bureau’s partners having “targeted violent offenders threatening our communities and took decisive action to hold them accountable.”
The surge moved regionally week by week. The first week, based in Wilmington, Delaware, produced 49 arrests and one firearm seizure; those taken into custody were wanted on charges including robbery, rape, child abuse, sexual assault, strangulation, illegal firearm possession and child sexual exploitation. The second week shifted to Baltimore, where 36 people were arrested and two firearms recovered on warrants for offenses such as attempted murder, armed robbery, assault, rape of a minor, sexual assault of a minor, child abuse and cyberstalking. The third week concentrated on Anne Arundel County, netting 24 arrests on charges that included assault, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, child desertion, reckless endangerment, illegal firearm possession and robbery conspiracy.
Officials pointed to several specific arrests from the surge. Darrio Smith was taken into custody Aug. 3 in Annapolis on a second-degree assault warrant tied to an alleged assault on school property. John Moyer was arrested Aug. 4 in Brooklyn, Maryland, on charges of second-degree rape, sexual abuse of a minor and a fourth-degree sex offense, in a case authorities say dates to alleged crimes between mid-December 2025 and mid-January 2026. And on Aug. 5, Markquail Harris, of Levittown, Pennsylvania, was arrested on a New Castle City Police Department warrant for first-degree rape involving a firearm; authorities allege he traveled from Pennsylvania to New Castle City, Delaware, to commit the crime. Harris is being held at Howard Young Correctional Institution on $615,000 cash bail.
Local leaders across both states pointed to the surge as evidence of what coordinated policing can accomplish. Annapolis Acting Police Chief Amy Miguez and Anne Arundel County Police Chief Amal Awad both credited pooled resources with removing dangerous individuals from their communities. Anne Arundel County Sheriff Everett Sesker said the 24 arrests in his county reflected close coordination with the FBI and called the approach a new standard for his office. Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley both linked the surge to an ongoing decline in violent crime in the city.
In Delaware, State Police Superintendent William Crotty and U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wallace credited the operation with taking nearly 50 fugitives off the street in Wilmington alone. Additional statements came from Maryland State Police, Maryland Natural Resources Police, New Castle City Police, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, each striking similar notes of partnership and accountability.
The Baltimore surge is the latest phase of a nationwide campaign that has run for multiple years. The FBI’s original Summer Heat operation in 2025 led to more than 8,600 arrests nationwide, including 224 in the Baltimore Field Office’s Maryland and Delaware territory alone, then led by Special Agent in Charge William DelBagno. This year’s follow-up, Summer Heat 2.0, had already produced more than 4,000 arrests and 1,500 indictments nationwide within its first two months, according to FBI figures reported in early August, before the Baltimore-area results were announced.
The FBI said the three-week effort reflects its daily work with regional partners to combat violent crime and encouraged the public to submit tips through its electronic tip form.
