LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – One of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives was arrested in Lake County on Saturday morning, according to a news release.
The FBI said that Donald Eugene Fields, II was taken into custody after a routine traffic stop by Lady Lake police.
“There is no doubt this situation could have been different. But officers, these officers, handled it with professionalism, bravery, and their instincts paid off in a very big way,” said FBI Resident Agent Greg Frederico.
According to the release, Fields was pulled over around 9:15 a.m. at U.S. Highway 27/441 at Rolling Acres Road for the license plate on the vehicle he was driving not being registered to that vehicle.
“(The officer) also noticed -- not only did the plate not belong -- but the sticker the registration sticker was a little bit off, but the sticker, the registration sticker, was a little bit off,” said Lady Lake Police Chief Steve Hunt.
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“The ID actually came back it was two years expired, it was a real ID belonging to another person who looked similar to him, but was a decade younger than him,” said Lady Lake Police Sergeant Michelle Bilbrey.
Fields was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in May 2023, the agency said.
According to the release, Fields, 60, was federally indicted in St. Louis on Dec. 7, 2023, on one count of child sex trafficking. The indictment accuses Fields of knowingly attempting to recruit, entice, provide, patronize, and solicit a minor into engaging in a commercial sex act from about January 2013 until June 2017.
The FBI said that Fields is also facing charges including statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation, and witness tampering in Franklin County Circuit Court in Missouri. A warrant for his arrest was issued by that court after Fields vacated his home and failed to show up for a March 3, 2022, hearing, court records show.
“We know now that since that time, Mr. Fields has made changes to his physical appearance and that was one of the ways he was able to evade detection and avoid accountability until his capture this weekend,” Frederico said.
Fields was the 531st fugitive added to the list, officials said. Of the total, 495 fugitives have now been apprehended or located—163 of them as a result of citizen cooperation.
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