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GREENSBORO — The fleet of unmarked sport utility vehicles pulled up to a house on Timberlane Drive in Asheboro on the morning of June 23.

Several Greensboro police officers, an Alamance County deputy and two deputy U.S. marshals headed for the front door. Before they could get there, a man went through a side door into the garage.

When he spotted officers ready to draw their weapons, his face was as white as a ghost.

Surrounded and nursing a broken arm, Evan Baker Brown gave himself up willingly.

Brown, 32, was wanted on cocaine charges in Greensboro dating back three years, warrants he — very loudly — said were taken care of.

“Why would something happen now? I had this taken care of!” Brown screamed — only to be met with by a cool-headed deputy U.S. marshal, who reminded him that that’s something for the courts to decide.

It wasn’t the most eventful of arrests, but it’s another warrant checked off the list for U.S. Deputy Marshal Brian Lord and his team of officers working Operation FALCON.

“We gave them far more leeway than we probably should,” Lord says, pulling away from the house in his Ford Explorer. “I bet he thought no one would ever come out here and get him because that 'would be a waste of time.’”

Operation FALCON, the annual monthlong partnership between federal and local authorities, put 35,190 wanted fugitives behind bars nationwide in June.

The operation went smoothly this year, officials said at a news conference Thursday during which they announced arrest totals for the effort.

In the Middle District of North Carolina, where weeklong operations hit Durham, Winston-Salem, High Point and Greensboro, the operation made 541 arrests.

About 128 federal, state and local law enforcement officers from a long list of agencies participated, including police and sheriff’s offices from Alamance, Davidson, Durham, Guilford, Forsyth and Orange counties.

Locally, the operation targeted suspects wanted on a variety of offenses, from sexual assault to fraud to homicide. The most common included narcotics offenses, burglaries, larcenies and assault.

While some of the warrants were as recent as May or June, others were significantly older.

“There were several that were four- to five-years-old,” said John Bridge, a deputy U.S. marshal.

FALCON, which stands for Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally, began in 2004.

It organizes people and resources at federal, state and local levels to locate and apprehend criminals.

The operation works by swearing in local officers as special U.S. marshal deputies, allowing them to cross traditional jurisdictional lines to track down fugitives, according to the U.S. marshals.

Since its inception, the FALCON operations have led to more than 91,000 arrests and the clearing of nearly 118,000 criminal warrants.

In 2008, the roundup led to the arrest of Jonathan Newell, who was convicted of first-degree murder in the January 2008 killing of Regan Bailey at her home on Willoughby Boulevard.

While it doesn’t always mean getting the fugitive in every case, the operation has helped generate new information from neighbors and family members of wanted suspects.

Federal officials touted this year’s effort.

“Returning FALCON to its roots of a nationwide fugitive manhunt accomplished a feat never before done by the marshals — 35,000 wanted (fugitives), many of whom were impact players for crime in their communities, off the streets in a mere four weeks,” Chief Tommy Thompson, commander of the operation, said in a news release.

Staff Writer Jason Hardin contributed.

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com