Sheriff’s deputies arrest several suspects during warrant round-up

Deputies with the El Paso County Sheriffs Office followed up on their promise to search for and arrest anyone they found who had an outstanding warrant.

This is a follow up to the Safe Streets Program that the E.P.C.S.O. launched in July. ABC 7 Reported on the program that offered anyone with a warrant the opportunity to clear it up at a satellite booking office at the lower level of the County Courthouse.

Thursday morning, Sergeant Robert Graziano gathered his team of officers this morning, before sun up, and hit the streets of El Paso with 80-thousand warrants in hand.

Their mission was simple, locate and arrest as many people with warrants as possible.

Robert Graziano told ABC 7, “It’s mentally exhausting at the end of the day, it’s playing hide and seek with grown adults.”

He also said that they officially started the warrant round up on Monday, searching for people who had warrants with major offenses

“The warrants that we’re going after are all criminal warrants. We have about 80,000 warrants right now in this office, and they range anywhere from thefts all the way up to homicide,” Graziano said.

Graziano and his team of officers were up working before the sun came out this morning, with a goal of eliminating some of the thousands of outstanding warrants. His department receiving an additional 1,800 warrants from The District Attorney’s Office in the last two weeks.

Today’s warrant round up was successful in arresting some of the wanted fugitives. Like a man who was wanted for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly aimed a gun at a man who was trying to repossess his truck.

Another man arrested on six warrants. Three for drug charges, two for theft and one for assault. He was taken into custody with out incident.

But not all searches ended successfully today. The officers searching for a man wanted for indecency with a child, looking at many different places, but not able to find him.

At the end of the day, Graziano say’s its best to take care of your warrants, before you end up getting an early morning knock at your door, which ends up with a trip to jail.

He said “You don’t want us to have to come pick you up at your house or your place of business, its dangerous to you, its dangerous to the public and its embarrassing to those involved.”

Graziano also told ABC7 that all the members of his team have 10 or more years of experience, so they are able to handle any issue that may arise in the field during the warrant round up’s.