Authorities announced Wednesday the arrests of 271 suspects during a week-long series of surprise raids.

The arrests were the result of Operation Falcon, the fifth such roundup coordinated by the United States Marshals Service for the northern district of Alabama.  Marshals said the arrest total was more than double their previous record for Operation Falcon.

"We were able to turn the tables," said Marshal Marty Keely.  "We took the predators who prey upon the most vulnerable in society.  And they became the prey of Operation Falcon.

Suspects arrested had outstanding warrants for a variety of offenses ranging from sex crimes to narcotics cases to homicides.  In addition to marshals, roughly 100 state and local officers were sworn in as deputy marshals to help carry out the arrests last week.

Officers focused their efforts on various counties and communities across the northern half of Alabama.  "You know, sometimes we have a situation where it's the crooks that work together.  And sometimes, they are better coordinated than we are," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Phillips.  "This is not one of those times."

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ABC 33/40 was the only Birmingham television station along for the ride as suspects were rounded up in places such as Anniston, Talladega County, Shelby County and Mountain Brook.  Most suspects were taken into custody without incident, many of them clearly resigned to their fate of a ride to jail in the back of a police car.  Only a handful of suspects had posted bond by Wednesday morning.

Marshals and federal prosecutors were joined by representatives of local police departments and sheriff's offices as the arrests were announced.  "They did a lot of background work, and they used assets and resources that local law enforcement does not have," Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson said.

Tuscaloosa Police Chief Ken Swindle spoke of authorities reaching out to assist other departments.  "In Tuscaloosa, it reduced our homicide rate by 38 percent in 2007," Swindle said of his department's partnership with the Marshals' Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force.

"There's a united effort to cooperate and to work together and to share information and share intelligence, and it's working well," Keely added.

Marshals said one of the two homicide suspects arrested was captured in Tuscaloosa.  Swindle added a high school student was arrested for alleged gang activity.  The juvenile's personal website contributed to his arrest.

Before authorities began knocking on doors and breaking out handcuffs, they spent weeks reviewing warrants and gathering information about where suspects would likely be found.  Arrests were made at all hours of the day and night in order to capture as many suspects as possible.

In one instance, a robbery suspect was sought in a residential area just outside Columbiana.  The suspect was not there, but before long, officers tracked him down to a construction site at a gated community in Mountain Brook.

The suspect was arrested while working at the site.  He could be heard asking his employer for an advance on his paycheck in order to post bond.  He did not get what he wanted.

Other arrests were the results of suspects' bad luck.  "We arrested one individual at his brother's house," Keely said.  "And when we went in to arrest him, there were 23 marijuana plants in the house, so his brother got arrested."

In Anniston, officers were arriving at a suspect's home as a sport-utility vehicle was pulling away from the residence.  Police stopped the S.U.V.  The suspect they were seeking was not in the vehicle.  But the man and woman who were in the S.U.V. both had warrants, so before long, they were cuffed and booked into the local jail.

Authorities also continued to gather intelligence during the operation.  Two suspects wanted for sex offenses in Calhoun County were arrested out-of-state.  One was in Florida; the other was in Iowa.

Most suspects will likely be prosecuted at the local level.  However, any case with federal implications is expected to be heard in federal court.

The local Operation Falcon effort was part of a national crackdown by the U.S. Marshals Service.  Throughout the country, tens of thousands of arrests have been made over the past three years.  The U.S. Marshals' website reports the latest Operation Falcon efforts have netted more than 11,700 arrests nationwide so far.

Wednesday's gathering of top law enforcement from northern Alabama was symbolic, officers said, of their determination to work together to continue making arrests.  "This is a pretty big fraternity that you see on this stage here today, and I would say this fraternity out-numbers the folks we're going against out there," Keely said.

Suspects arrested are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.