Two of Canada and France’s most wanted fugitives arrested in Marbella and Seville

The fugitive arrested on the Costa del Sol was the subject of an International Arrest Warrant and had been wanted since February 2023 for drug trafficking and membership of a criminal organisation, offences for which he faces a possible life sentence.

Knowing that he was on Canada’s most-wanted list, he hardly ever left the property. He took numerous security measures which he extended to those closest to him and had begun the process of removing visible tattoos to make it harder to identify him.

According to a statement from the National Police, following more than ten months of information-sharing and as a result of close and coordinated international cooperation, the officers located his possible residence and set up a surveillance operation in the vicinity. He was identified by officers on one of the few occasions when he left the property and was arrested as he got into a vehicle.

The man arrested in Seville had been on the run and wanted by the French authorities since October 1997 for his involvement in an armed attack on an security van transporting money from a bank, in which one person was seriously injured, according to the same statement from the National Police.

Following a series of police operations and three years of investigations, officers established that the man arrested in Seville might have been residing in the town of Arahal. Once his place of residence had been confirmed, they set up a security operation in the area and spotted the suspect leaving the property on foot, at which point he was arrested.