The Federal Bureau of Investigation today
announced the arrest of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive, Eric Franklin
Rosser. He was taken into custody on the morning of August 21, 2001,
at a business located in Bangkok, Thailand. Members of the Crime Suppression
Bureau of the Thai National Police, in cooperation with the FBI's Legal
Attache Office in Bangkok, Thailand, participated in the arrest.
This apprehension was made possible
after law enforcement authorities were given information which
was obtained through a viewer of the television program "America's
Most Wanted: America Fights Back". The viewer's tip led
authorities to believe that Rosser was in the area and, after
surveillance was initiated, Rosser was seen walking on a city
street and then entering a building. Law enforcement authorities
followed Rosser into the building and proceeded to place him
in custody. This is the fourteenth time that the cooperative
efforts of law enforcement officials and "America's Most
Wanted: America Fights Back" has led to the apprehension
of a Top Ten Fugitive.
Rosser was wanted for his alleged
involvement in numerous offenses, including the production of
a videotape in Thailand which depicted sexually explicit conduct
between himself and an eleven-year-old female child. Rosser later
distributed that videotape to a Bloomington, Indiana resident.
He also allegedly conspired to transport, distribute, and receive
videotapes, photographs, and magazines containing child pornography
involving female children between the ages of nine and eleven
years. Some of these photographs and visual depictions were placed
on the Internet as a direct result of being smuggled, allegedly
by Rosser, from the United States to Thailand.
Rosser was indicted on March
21, 2000, in the Southern District of Indiana, and charged with
the production, distribution, receipt, and transportation of
child pornography. He was also charged with conspiracy to transport,
ship, distribute, and receive child pornography. As an admitted
pedophile, Rosser was considered dangerous, especially to children.
Eric Franklin Rosser was placed
on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list on December
27, 2000. He was the 460th person to be placed on the list, which
began in 1950. Since then, 436 fugitives have been apprehended
or located, 139 of them as a result of citizen assistance.
Further information about Eric
Franklin Rosser, and the other fugitives currently appearing
on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List", is available
on the FBI's Internet home page at http://www.fbi.gov.