AUGUSTA (AP) – A 65-year-old environmental criminal from Meddybemps who has been on Maine’s most wanted list was apprehended Thursday at a salvage business in Massachusetts, authorities said.

Junkyard operator Harry Smith Jr. had been on the lam for nearly two years since the Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected his appeal of convictions for hazardous waste crimes and he failed to show up to serve a one-year jail term.

Smith also failed to serve a six-month sentence for violating probation.

Smith was in the custody of Massachusetts officials while awaiting arraignment in Chelsea District Court.

Maine Attorney General Steven Rowe said he was arranging for Smith to be returned to Maine, where he will likely face additional charges linked to his failure to report to jail.

“Through some fabulous police work and a bit of good luck, Smith is finally behind bars where he belongs. Let all who might flaunt our environmental laws and ignore our court orders take note of what our system promises for you,” Rowe said in a statement announcing Smith’s capture.

Investigators tracked Smith to the salvage yard after receiving a tip that he was living and working in the Everett area, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said.

Smith, who followed his father into the hazardous waste business, was accused of disposing of hazardous wastes at three eastern Maine sites that required environmental cleanups over a period of two decades. Among the sites was a huge tire pile laced with railroad cars filled with pails and barrels of highly flammable materials.

One of the dumps was designated as a Superfund site in which the federal government spent millions of dollars to protect pristine waterways and habitat for endangered Atlantic salmon, Robbin said.

She suggested that friends in eastern Maine assisted Smith in eluding police.

“There were a number of local people in the Meddybemps area who saw him as a hero,” Robbin said. “It was Harry versus big, bad government that was trying to get him to clean up the hazardous waste that created the risk of burning down Meddybemps.”