The man, who was handcuffed and wearing a flak jacket, had not previously been involved in the case and was helping officers look at places the 37-year-old fugitive had frequented.
Members of the SAS and snipers from the Metropolitan Police were among those dispatched to the north-east on Wednesday as the fugitive continued to evade authorities.
The manhunt, entering its sixth day is still focused on a small area of rural Northumberland. However detectives says they are open to the possibility that Moat may already have slipped through their lines.
Meanwhile two men arrested in connection with the hunt will appear in court today charged with conspiracy to commit murder and possessing a firearm with intent.
Karl Ness, 26, from Dudley in North Tyneside, and Qhuram 'Sean' Awan, 23, from Blyth in Northumberland, will appear at Newcastle Magistrates Court.
The pair were found on Tuesday as police wrestled with what they thought was a hostage situation; however, the two were eventually arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.
Police forces in Northern Ireland contributed 20 armoured cars to the search operation.
Some of the units recruited to help Northumbria Police are believed to be experts at working in the dark, using long-range heat-detecting equipment to find their target.
Police disclosed on Wednesday that they had found a makeshift campsite at Wagtail Farm in Rothbury where Moat had been living in a tent.
The site, close to where the Lexus car he had been driving was found on Tuesday, was abandoned but officers found a letter to his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, in which he reiterated his threats to kill officers.
The eight-page letter to Miss Stobbart, one of the three people he shot last weekend, followed a 49-page message handed to police by a friend on Monday, in which Moat "declared war" on Northumbria police.
Police efforts to scale up the manhunt came as Moat's mother said she believed her son “would be better off dead”.
Josephine Healey, 63, who has had little contact with Moat for 18 years, said the self-confessed “maniac” was a different person in “every last detail” to the son she remembered.
Referring to school photographs showing a contented-looking child with a toothy smile, and contrasting them with the hulking bodybuilder now on the loose, she said: “This man does not look like my son.
“I feel like he hasn’t been my son since he was 19 years old. He now has a totally different character, attitude and manner. Now when I see him I don’t recognise him at all. He would be better off dead. If I was to make an appeal I would say he would be better dead.”
Temporary Deputy Chief Constable Jim Campbell said: "I'd like to thank again the residents of Rothbury for their support and patience at what is an unprecedented level of activity for them to see in their rural location.
"The searches in this area have proved a particular challenge due to the open farmland and dense woodland and officers are continuing in their efforts today. I'd like to reassure the public that we are doing everything possible to locate Moat and bring this investigation to a conclusion."
Det Chief Supt Neil Adamson, who is leading the search, said he believed Moat was still in the Rothbury area, and offered a £10,000 reward to anyone who could help secure his arrest.
Moat’s mother, from Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne, said her son had chronic asthma as a child and did not have many friends.
“He was like all little boys,” she said. “We used to find him with pockets full of spiders.”
After leaving school at 16 he began karate lessons and “would always be sitting around in his white karate outfit”.
Then, after Mrs Healey married her current husband, Brian, Moat and his elder brother Angus, 39, fell out with their mother and she did not see Moat for 10 years.
Mrs Healey said one of the last times she saw Moat was in 2007 when he turned up on her doorstep and threatened her. “It was like he was not my real son. He did not want anything to do with me. He put his two fingers pointing to me like a gun.”
The search for Moat began after he wounded Miss Stobbart, 22, early on Saturday and shot dead her boyfriend, Chris Brown, 29, before shooting Pc David Rathband, 42.
