Guns drawn, authorities surrounded the Ford SUV of a larger-than-life U.S. fugitive and storied outdoorsman who fled his country and ended up on Costa Rica’s central Pacific coast.
With an arrest order from the U.S. Marshal Service, Costa Rican authorities nabbed Edmond H. Smith, a 41-year-old who vanished from the U.S. state of Alabama after he was temporarily released from prison so he could seek treatment for a badly infected foot wound, according to international police agency Interpol.
Costa Rican authorities pinpointed Smith in Herradura beach, and arrested him Wednesday. Smith, who had been serving an 88-day sentence in the United States for reportedly hunting while he was supposed to be on home confinement, had a .45-caliber pistol on him when arrested.
In early June, after Smith had been let out temporarily, he stopped contact with probation officers, and discarded his electronic monitoring device, a local newspaper in Smith’s native Mobile, Alabama reported.
The paper, the Press-Register, did an indepth report on Smith’s turbulent life.
Smith has been in and out of a couple dozen Alabama criminal cases since 1994, for charges that range from illegal importation of a dear head from Canada to impersonating a police officer using a fake badge to writing worthless checks, according to the Press-Register.
Costa Rican authorities are processing him to be deported to the United States.
