One of FBI's 10 most wanted fugitives nabbed during routine traffic stop in Florida
Law enforcement nabbed one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives doing a routine traffic stop in Florida.
Officers from the Lady Lake Police Department stopped a vehicle driven by Donald Eugene Fields II at 9:15 a.m. on Sunday at a local intersection, police said in a news release. Authorities said the vehicle's license plate was not registered to the vehicle.
Video footage taken during the arrest shows police questioning Fields II. When authorities ran the license he can be seen handing the officer, they found it wasn't his, according to the video. According to the release, officers ultimately identified the driver as Fields and arrested him.
"Thanks to proactive policing by the Lady Lake Police Department, one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted fugitives has been captured," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson. The town is about an hour from Orlando and is home to part of The Villages, the senior community that sprawls across three Central Florida counties.
The FBI added Fields II to the list in May 2023 and the agency offered up to $250,000 for information leading to his arrest.
Fields, 60, was federally indicted in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 2023, for allegedly attempting to recruit and exploit a minor for commercial sex acts between January 2013 and June 2017. He also faces state charges in Missouri, including alleged statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation and witness tampering, police said.
Fields has been a fugitive since March 2022 after he failed to appear for a court hearing in Franklin County, Missouri, police said.