NEW JERSEY SEXUAL PREDATOR CAPTURED IN DAYTON
On the run for 6 year ends on North Gettysburg

Jim Wahlrab, United States Marshal for the Southern District of Ohio announces the arrest of Johnny Barreto on February 23, 2007. Barreto was wanted by the Mercer County, New Jersey, Sheriffs Office for failure to register as a sexual offender. Barreto was required to register as a sexual offender due to an original charge of Sexually Assaulting a 14 year old child. After serving a nine year sentence in the New Jersey State Correctional System, Barreto was released with the requirement that he register his address with law enforcement. A year later, Barreto had disappeared and a warrant was issued for his arrest on April 4, 2001. Although New Jersey officials investigated leads in numerous states, Barreto managed to elude law enforcement officials until Friday morning when his luck ran out.

Barreto’s luck began to go south earlier this month when the Mercer County Sheriffs Office contacted the U.S. Marshals New York/New Jersey Regional Task Force and requested their assistance with the investigation. New Jersey Marshals conducted a preliminary investigation which narrowed the search to three states - Florida, Kentucky and Ohio. Investigation by Dayton Deputy Marshals discovered Barreto had recently applied for an Ohio drivers license. Although the address on the license turned out to be fictitious, the drivers license photograph of Barreto provided Marshals with all the information they needed. This was because Barreto had worn his work uniform the day he had his picture taken for his Ohio drivers license. On one pocket was Barreto’s name “Johnny” and on the other pocket was the employer’s name. Marshals looked up the company name in the phone book, drove to the company’s address and found Barreto working in the same work uniform he had worn in the Ohio drivers license photograph. Barreto was taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals and booked in to the Montgomery County Jail where he was awaiting extradition proceedings to New Jersey.

The U.S. Marshals Service was America’s first federal law enforcement agency and each year arrests more fugitives than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.