LEWISTON – A man considered among the most wanted criminals in Lewiston was arrested in Connecticut on Tuesday and charged with rape.
Felipe Rodriguez, 24, of 6 Knox St., was captured around noon by police and federal agents who tracked him to Enfield, Conn.
Police had been searching for Rodriguez since December, when an Androscoggin County grand jury indicted him on a charge of gross sexual assault. Rodriguez is accused of forcing a local woman to have sex with him Aug. 25 in Lewiston, according to court documents.
An arrest warrant was issued in December, but Rodriguez could not be found. He became a primary focus of a nationwide operation aimed at catching dangerous fugitives in early April.
Rodriguez was not located during the weeklong Operation Falcon, which concluded last week. But Lewiston police and agents from the Central Maine Violent Crime Task Force continued to chase down leads about his whereabouts.
In recent days, police said tips led them to Hartford, Conn., and then to Enfield, a town of about 8,000 people on the Massachusetts border.
Enfield police and U.S. marshals kept a home under surveillance after learning that Rodriguez might be inside. At about 11 a.m. Tuesday, he was captured without a struggle and taken into custody.
He is expected to be returned to Maine to face the rape charge.
Rodriguez also has a history of assault and robbery charges in Lewiston. In January 2001, he was arrested in Portland a week after he was accused of robbing a Sabattus Street auto mechanic at knife point.
“Whenever we can catch someone suspected in a violent felony, it’s a good arrest,” said Lewiston Deputy Police Chief Michael Bussiere. “It sends out a message: They can leave Maine, but we won’t stop looking for them.”
For Lewiston police, the arrest marks the fifth suspect from their 10 most wanted list who was captured in the past two weeks. Four were arrested during Operation Falcon.
“We’re going to have to create another top 10 list,” Bussiere said. “That’s a sign of good police work.”
Comments are no longer available on this story