Former director of Mexico’s state-owned oil company Pemex, Emilio Lozoya, was arrested in Marbella in February 2020, where he was hiding under a false identity. Jon Nazca (Portal)
Robert Czik went to the same cafeteria in Puerto Banús every morning for breakfast. He looked like a normal citizen, but he wasn’t. The gaze of one of Poland’s biggest white-collar criminals was hidden under his sunglasses. Czik, 44, led a criminal group aimed at laundering large sums of dirty money. After fleeing his country a few years ago, he decided to hide out in Marbella, the usual destination for fugitives from justice, where he led a discreet life until the police found him and dwarfed him a few weeks ago.
Czik is one of the 225 refugees who have fallen in Spain so far this year. Europe’s most wanted criminals have found their special farmhouse on the Mediterranean coast. Attracted by the climate, like any tourist, they settle in crowded summer resort areas such as Marbella, Alicante or Barcelona, where they try to remain unnoticed, hiding under false identities and residing in large urbanizations and foreign communities such as the .. .hide Costa del Sol. Drug trafficking, organized crime, homicides and sexual assaults weigh on their shoulders. After committing them, they flee their countries of origin to avoid justice. And hundreds of them are caught in Spain.
A few days ago, three of the most wanted refugees in Europe, who were vacationing there, fell in Calpe. They were drug dealers and face life imprisonment in Hungary. The detainees continued to smuggle drugs from Spain to Hungary, hidden in trucks. Their names – which have not been disclosed – have been included in the Game Over list, which includes the 50 most wanted criminals in the old continent.
“Arrests always increase in the summer,” says Fernando González, chief inspector of the National Police’s refugee location unit. One of the reasons for this is that the agents know where to look for them: by choosing Spain because of the climate, these criminals settle in coastal and summer areas where there is a high influx of foreigners to go unnoticed. Another reason is visiting relatives. “Many live here all year round and in the summer relatives or acquaintances come to visit them,” explains González from his office in the Canillas police complex. “These people often lead us to them,” he adds.
Fernando González, chief inspector of the Fugitive Location Unit, at the Canillas police complex INMA FLORES on Wednesday
The most common profile of the fugitive arrested in Spain is that of a drug dealer, although there are everything: rapists, scammers and even murderers. This is the case of Francelys María Furcal, the most wanted fugitive in the Dominican Republic, who was arrested a few days ago in Madrid for killing her boss after a heated argument. Or Dragonfly, who is wanted by France for murdering a member of a rival gang and for belonging to a criminal organization. He was arrested in Girona earlier this month after attempting to escape from police by jumping between several buildings.
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“The beauty of this job is that you never know what to expect when you get to the office,” says one of the police officers from the department involved in the recent arrest of a fugitive whom Italy has blamed for his participation in a drug robbery in which two drug dealers were shot and seriously injured. The arrest of this individual, who was described as “extremely dangerous”, was complicated by the fact that the man resisted vigorously and even continued to enter the police car.
According to the Home Office, the Fugitive Location Unit receives 4,000 international cooperation requests each year to locate these individuals. Of the 346 people arrested last year, 11% had an arrest warrant from Germany (37), 10% from Italy (35), 7% from Romania (23), 6% from France (22) and 4% from Poland (14). ).
In general, those hiding in Spain try to keep a low profile and not continue the activities they are wanted for. “There have been cases of drug dealers who have continued to operate from here, or even some robbers who have continued to commit crimes, but those who have committed more serious crimes like murders rarely commit more crimes here,” González says. who has been in office since 2019.
A total of 346 people fell last year, including Michel J. Pratt, one of the FBI’s ten most wanted people, who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States on charges of child pornography, sexual exploitation and assault, and illicit earnings exceeding 16 million euros. It was the first time that Spain arrested a criminal from this criminal list. Pratt is currently being held in Soto del Real prison awaiting extradition to the United States. “Capturing the predator Pratt in Madrid was my Christmas present,” wrote Cati, one of his victims, in a message posted to Facebook. Cati was 19 when she was recruited by Pratt’s organization. According to her statement, she was forced to record porn videos that eventually went viral. “Even my family saw them,” the victim said in the message.
“You never know when you’ll find the clue that will lead you to find the fugitive,” says González. Despite the greatest caution, the Pole Robert Czik made a mistake that was of crucial importance for the police investigation: he always went to the same place for breakfast. This habit betrayed him.
Spain is the chair of the European Refugee Network
When Europe’s borders disappeared in the 1990s, criminals looking to evade justice found it easier to roam freely. In search of them, an avalanche of requests for cooperation between countries was unleashed. From then on, “Spain is configured as a kind of criminal coworking, a good place to do business where criminals from all over the world arrive,” says González.
In 2004, when the European Detention and Surrender Order came into force in Spain, the Fugitive Locating Group was formed in Spain to deal with this avalanche of inquiries. There is currently a nationwide network: in each federal state there is a specialized contact point in this area. “Usually it’s organized crime groups that do their investigations and when we [la unidad central] We need support, they are what we aim for, the goal is speed,” emphasizes González.
In 2010, the European Network of Refugees (Enfast) was created – currently chaired by Spain – to improve coordination between countries.
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