Fresno County sweep nets 12 fugitives in foothill warrant operation
A 17-agency sweep in eastern Fresno County foothills hit 50-plus locations, arresting 12 wanted fugitives and turning up a Friant parole violation.
A 17-agency sweep across eastern Fresno County foothill communities ended Wednesday with 12 arrests of wanted fugitives and a Friant search that uncovered loose ammunition, narcotics evidence and a handgun silencer. Operation Gold Star covered more than 50 locations near Clovis, Friant, Prather, Shaver Lake and Auberry, sending more than 130 law enforcement personnel into the mountain corridors that sheriff’s officials say can be hard to monitor.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said the operation marked its first Gold Star deployment since 2021. Deputies carried out nine probation searches and two parole searches, with support from drones, medical personnel and jail staff as they served warrants in isolated terrain and tighter residential pockets spread through the foothills.
Sheriff John Zanoni said the operation was aimed at probation and parole searches, arson registrants, sex registrants and wanted fugitives. The sweep also drew help from the California Highway Patrol, Fresno County District Attorney’s Office, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Forest Service, Fresno Police Department, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Adult Parole Operations and Community Compliance Unit, reflecting the county’s reliance on coordinated enforcement when suspects are spread across wide rural distances.
In Friant, Sgt. Shawn Plummer said one parole search turned up items that violated the suspect’s parole, including loose ammunition, narcotics evidence and a silencer for a handgun. That finding underscored the mix of supervision violations and criminal activity deputies said they were looking for in the foothills, where houses, forest roads and canyon access points can make regular compliance checks more difficult.
Officials said the mountain terrain and isolation of those communities can leave some people unmonitored for long periods and make warrant work more dangerous for deputies. The county has leaned on similar joint operations before: a separate multi-agency parole compliance sweep in Fresno on Jan. 21 produced 19 arrests and led to the recovery of five weapons and ammunition, showing how often local, state and federal agencies are being pulled together to track supervised offenders and fugitives across Fresno County.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
