For Immediate Release
August 21, 2001

Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office

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.