The dramatic arrest of two murder suspects in Oak Harbor Wednesday was the second time in a week that special violent crime task forces came to the city in search of Skagit County suspects.

On April 2, a team consisting of the North Cascades Regional SWAT team, the Mount Vernon Police Tactical Operations team and a Skagit County crisis negotiations team rolled into Oak Harbor to arrest the 21-year-old and 17-year-old suspects.

The two young men are accused in the March 17 shooting death of 18-year-old Allen Gomez on East College Way in Mount Vernon. The suspects fled the scene, but detectives traced them to Oak Harbor after obtaining arrest warrants.

Both suspects were booked into Skagit County jail on suspicion of murder in the second degree.

The other arrest took place on March 25 on Southeast Ely Street in Oak Harbor. The U.S. Marshal Service’s Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force arrested a “a documented member of the Surenos,” a Mexican American street gang with ties to the Mexican mafia, according to court documents.

The task force’s primary mission is “to locate, arrest and return to the justice system the most violent and egregious federal and state fugitives,” according to the U.S. Marshal’s website.

Joe Meyer, a 19-year-old Mount Vernon resident, was wanted on a Department of Corrections felony warrant after his probation officer was unable to locate him last year. Meyer was convicted in Skagit County Superior Court of assault in the second degree and assault in the third degree.

Under the sentence, Meyer was subject to 12 months of community custody supervision. In October of last year, he was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. His community corrections officer tried to contact him but was unable to locate him, according to a report by a special deputy with the U.S. Marshal Service.

The Marshal Service opened a fugitive investigation, which led to an Oak Harbor apartment complex. The federal task force established surveillance and discovered that he was renting a room from a woman who didn’t know he was wanted by police.

The task force discovered a sawed-off shotgun under Meyer’s bed as well as shotgun shells in other areas.

Meyer told the investigators that he purchased the gun for protection and that he would rather be arrested for illegally possessing a firearm than to be without one, the report states.

The special deputy asked Meyer if he needed protection from other gang members, but Meyer said he was worried about “all the people breaking into homes in the Oak Harbor area,” the report states.

Prosecutors charged Meyer in Island County Superior Court April 2 with unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree and failure to comply with community custody.

If convicted of the charges against him, Meyer could face up to 41 months in prison under the standard sentencing range.