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Troopers from the State Police Violent Fugitive Apprehension Section (VFAS) in recent months tracked LENNY E. SANTIAGO, 35, to Pennsylvania and ultimately to Puerto Rico. VFAS recently developed information indicating a possible location for SANTIAGO in Puerto Rico.
VFAS troopers requested assistance from the United States Marshals Service in Puerto Rico. After a brief investigation, US Marshals located SANTIAGO on Tuesday at the Hogar Cristo Pobre Shelter in the city of Ponce and took him into custody. He was charged as a fugitive from justice and is awaiting extradition.
SANTIAGO, classified as a High Risk Level 3 Sex Offender, was wanted for failure to register as a sex offender. He is required to register as a result of his 2002 conviction on two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person age 14 or older and three counts of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior. In that case, SANTIAGO assaulted three women, two of them joggers and the third pushing a baby stroller, in Methuen.
State Police added SANTIAGO and five other sex offenders to the department’s Most Wanted Sex Offender list last July. The other five were arrested last year. With SANTIAGO’s capture, all six of the July 2016 additions to the list are now in custody.
