A heavily tattooed fugitive from justice who was wanted on a nationwide extradition warrant for unarmed robbery was arrested in Buxton over the weekend.

Maine State Police, in a statement posted on their Facebook page, identified the fugitive as Richard L. Duest, 28, of Malden, Massachusetts.

Richard Duest

According to state police, Trooper Doug Cropper stopped a pickup truck in Hollis on Friday for an inspection sticker violation. A passenger in the truck, now believed to be Duest, provided a name and date of birth that did not come back on file in Maine or Massachusetts. Cropper decided to let the truck go because he did not have enough information to detain the passenger.

After the traffic stop, Cropper shared information – specifically the tattoos on Duest’s neck and below both eyes – with the Maine Information and Analysis Center and the Massachusetts Fusion Center. Based largely on the tattoos, those agencies confirmed that the passenger was Duest, who was being sought on a nationwide extradition warrant from the U.S. Probation Department in Boston.

The original charge against Duest was unarmed bank robbery. There also was a warrant for his arrest out of Rhode Island.

On Saturday, state police said troopers, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency set up surveillance Saturday on a home in Buxton.

Cropper observed Duest traveling in a different vehicle in Buxton on Saturday and stopped it. Duest was arrested on a charge of being a fugitive from justice and providing a false name to a law enforcement officer. He was transported to the York County Jail, where he will be held pending extradition to Massachusetts.