According to the Federal Criminal Police, he was a highly dangerous man. Austrian investigators managed to arrest him 1.5 hours after taking over the case.
Just less than two weeks ago, investigators from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BK) achieved a special coup: criminal investigators captured a highly dangerous prisoner who had escaped in the Netherlands, at Vienna-Schwechat airport, just an hour and a half after taking charge of the case. Before coming to Austria, the mentally ill intensive care offender had been on the run for two days, the head of the department explained.
The man fled to Austria as part of his escape. After crossing the border, special investigators located him in Lower Austria. There, the wanted person took a train to Vienna-Schwechat airport. “We arrested him here on February 16,” said the senior officer of the “Active Fugitive Search Team” (Fast Austria) during a recent media event.
311 successful searches
The Dutchman's arrest is the latest case in the six-member department. Since the team was founded in 2003, 313 search files have crossed the investigators' desk at Josef-Holaubek-Platz. Officers can demonstrate a nearly 100% success rate. 311 of the 313 wanted people have been located and arrested since 2003, as emphasized by Andreas Holzer, director of the Federal Criminal Police. “If we’re looking for someone, it’s almost certainly going to be a success,” he said.
Only alleged darknet drug lord Josef Martin Schabel (nickname: “Mr. Blow”), wanted since 2021, and former pimp Tibor Foco, accused of killing a prostitute in 1986 and escaped from prison for nine years later, we managed find them (yet).) don't give up. This is quite unusual, according to the Federal Criminal Police. Ultimately, the research period lasts on average about 100 days. Specifically, 246 of the 311 people were arrested during this period.
“The important thing is persistence”
Team leader Fast emphasized: “The most important thing for a good target investigator is persistence.” In this context, he described as an example the case of an Austrian, who was wanted, among other things, for child abuse. “He had been hiding in Nigeria for 30 years when we managed to arrest him,” said the lead investigator. In addition to the classic skills of a criminal investigator, according to the head of FAST, the following are also necessary: “foreign language skills, a desire to communicate and network”, as well as a desire to travel. Ultimately, the focus is outward. “A target is not trapped by a table.”
In the past, agents have achieved spectacular successes, such as the arrest of a plastic surgeon wanted for fraud in Spain, a man accused of murdering his wife and daughter in Iraq or a commercial fraud suspect in Mexico – just 87 hours later of his death. disappearance. Fraudsters alone, of whom at least 90 will be arrested by 2024, are responsible for a total loss of more than 2.5 billion euros.
23 arrests last year
Last year, investigators were responsible, among other things, for the arrest of an alleged Serbian cocaine trafficker, said to be part of a clan, and an Austrian in Indonesia, suspected of commercial fraud. With 23 arrests, this year was an overall successful year for Federal Criminal Police experts.
The Federal Criminal Police target search unit completed 20 years in 2023 and operates throughout the world. The prerequisite for this is an international detention order issued by the Austrian authorities. Investigators focus, among other things, on serious capital crimes such as murder, robbery or kidnapping, as well as cases in the area of commercial drug trafficking or fraud – often related to organized crime.
The BK targeting unit acts as part of the EU Enfast targeting network and works closely with international law enforcement authorities as well as Europol and Interpol. (APA)