A recently retired US Border Patrol agent has been arrested as the suspected serial rapist who terrorized an Arizona community two decades ago, according to police.

The Mesa Police Department used DNA to identify John Daly, 57, as the “East Valley Rapist” — who sexually assaulted eight women in four Arizona cities between July 1999 and October 2001.

“The Mesa Police Department, using DNA technology, identified and arrested the East Valley Rapist, 22 years after his first known offense,” police said in a statement.

“With the utilization of SAKI (Sexual Assault Kit Initiative) funding, in February 2021 investigative efforts produced the name of John Daly III,” police said. “A history check showed that John had residency near each of the sexual assaults at the time they occurred.”

Last month, DNA linked Daly to two of the assaults — and later, a third.

The assaults took place in Mesa and Gilbert between October 1999 and November 2000, with Daly allegedly entering the victims’ homes through an unlocked door, an open bathroom window and a broken window, police said.

In all three cases, he allegedly blindfolded the victims before assaulting them.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with four counts of second-degree sexual assault and three counts each of kidnapping, burglary and sexual abuse.

Daly, who is being held without bail at the Cochise County Jail, is also suspected in five other assaults, police said.

It’s unclear if he was employed as a Border Patrol agent at the time of the incidents.

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