A man sought for months in the armed robberies of dozens of Hispanic victims in Birmingham is now in custody after he fell through the ceiling of a Georgia home as authorities tried to arrest him.

The U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force out of Atlanta captured 21-year-old Jakobie Deontay Smith at a home in Lawrenceville, Ga., Thursday morning. The task force was assisting the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force out of Birmingham.

Smith is charged with 34 counts of first-degree robbery and previously described by police as armed and dangerous. Birmingham police announced his capture Thursday afternoon.

Police in February requested assistance from the GCRFTF, which opened a fugitive investigation. In March, the GCRFTF sent a lead to the Atlanta task force.

On Thursday morning, said U.S. Marshal Marty Keely, task force members armed for an arrest warrant for Smith went to a residence on Martins Chapel Lane in Lawrenceville.

Before the task force could make entry, authorities said, Smith climbed in the attic to hide and fell through the ceiling. He then fled to the basement and wouldn’t respond to commands to come out, Keely said.

Law enforcement officers deployed a cannister of pepper spray into the basement. A short time, Smith surrendered without further incident.

Smith was booked into the Gwinnett County Jail at 10:30 a.m. Thursday and remains held there pending extradition to Alabama.

Police in late October announced more than 40 Hispanic victims had been targeted that month, with at least six people robbed in five different incidents in less than four hours on one day.

“It’s extremely alarming because we know this group is not going to stop until we stop them,’’ Fitzgerald said at the time. “They’ve shown no signs that they’re going to stop.”

The victims included families and workers at construction sites and other businesses. Police have worked to get the word out to potential victims and even contractors and business owners who hire Hispanic workers.

Fitzgerald said Hispanic victims are often targeted for robbery because they often carry large amounts of cash and are sometimes reluctant to notify police when they are victimized.

In January, a construction worker was shot to death during a robbery at an Ensley house that was undergoing renovation.

Investigation said at the time of the slaying of 48-year-old Roman Gonzalez that there was a strong likelihood that the suspects were part of a group that had been targeting Hispanic construction workers and other Hispanic victims since last year.

No arrests have been announced in the death of Gonzalez.

Smith was charged with capital murder in the high-profile Dec. 14, 2021, slayings of brothers Lorenzo Cole, 23, and Cortney Woods, 22, but those charges were dismissed last year.

A judge ruled there was “no probable cause exists to believe that the defendant committed the charged crime.”

Investigators in November charged Evontay Blevins, 19, with 32 counts of first-degree robbery. They withheld announcing his arrest while they tried to find Smith.

Blevins remains held in the Jefferson County on bonds totaling more than $2 million.