A career criminal is on his way back to state prison, thanks to anonymous tip which led to his arrest this morning.
According to local law enforcement officials, Howard Lee Brice, 52, had been on the run since early April, when he violated terms of his state parole. Brice had spent the five previous years in prison for a variety of charges, including the trafficking of cocaine and battery on a law enforcement officer.
When he was released in September 2009, it was on the condition that he complete a drug treatment program, which Brice failed to do, officials said. A warrant was subsequently issued for his arrest, and since that time Brice has been in hiding — until an anonymous tip was called into Crime Stoppers with his whereabouts.
He was taken into custody this morning in the area of Pine Manor in Fort Myers by members of the U.S. Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.
Brice, who was one of Crime Stoppers’ 10 Most Wanted fugitives, has spent nearly 19 of the last 29 years of his life in prison. He’s a repeat offender with several arrests in Lee, Collier and Miami-Dade counties for drugs, resisting arrest with violence, and the sale and delivery of cocaine. Brice was booked into the Lee County Jail shortly before 1 p.m., and is being held without bond.