Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

Spain Flag in Pole. Photo courtesy of Pexels

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1748414773976Screen Shot 2025-05-28 at 2.45.08 PM.png" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Spain Flag in Pole. Photo courtesy of Pexels"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Spain Flag in Pole.<em> Photo courtesy of Pexels</em></span></span></span></div><p>MADRID, Spain — With its sun-drenched beaches and vibrant nightlife, Spain has long been a top destination — not just for tourists, but also for criminals looking to vanish.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/07/24/21/portomarin-galicia-spain-travel-tours-pilgrimage">Travel notes: Portomarin, Spain</a></div><p>From drug traffickers to sex offenders and cybercriminals, fugitives from around the globe flock to Spain&#x27;s coastal havens.</p><p>That gamble rarely pays off: police stress that their chances of evading justice are slim.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re arresting new people every day,&quot; said Fernando Gonzalez, the head of an elite Spanish police unit set up in 2004 to hunt down criminals on the run.</p><p>&quot;Spain remains a very attractive place for traffickers,&quot; he added.</p><p>Last year, his unit arrested 460 fugitives — mostly foreigners — across Spain, up from 390 in 2023.</p><p>The pace has not slowed this year. Recent high-profile arrests underscore the European country&#x27;s ongoing appeal to fugitives.</p><p>In October 2024, police in Barcelona arrested Serbian national Nikola Vusovic, a suspected leader of a major crime gang from Montenegro, the Kavac clan.</p><p>At the start of this year, officers arrested the leader of a brutal Peruvian mafia group, Omar Luis Castaneda, near the Mediterranean city of Alicante over his suspected involvement in 16 murders in the Latin American country.</p><p>And in February, police in southern Spain arrested one of the gunmen who in 2024 ambushed a prison van in France to free a drug lord, Mohamed Amra, killing two prison guards. The fugitive was living in a luxury villa at the time.</p><p>&quot;We deal with a wide range of profiles,&quot; from major criminals to petty offenders, as well as a wide range of nationalities, Gonzalez said as he scanned the latest list of arrests, which included Moroccans, French nationals and a growing number of Latin Americans.</p><div><strong>&#x27;BLEND IN&#x27;</strong></div><p>Spain&#x27;s role as a haven for those trying to evade justice is &quot;historic&quot;, a French investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s not just a hideout for fugitives... it&#x27;s also home to career criminals who operate between Morocco, Spain and France.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/29/spain-portugal-rule-out-cyberattack-for-massive-blackout-2159">Spain, Portugal rule out cyberattack for massive blackout</a></div><p>Spain is home to a large number of expatriates and is the world&#x27;s second-most-visited country, having welcomed a record 94 million foreign tourists last year, which makes it easier for fugitives to go unnoticed.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a place with a high quality of life. It&#x27;s easy to rent quiet villas with swimming pools. People blend in,&quot; the French investigator said.</p><p>Criminal defense lawyer and former extradition judge Carlos Bautista said Spain&#x27;s location &quot;at the crossroads&quot; of Europe, the Americas and Africa makes it a natural hiding spot for runaway criminals.</p><p>Gonzalez said fugitives can often easily find &quot;contacts who can help&quot; them among the large community of foreigners who live in Spain.</p><p>He cited as an example the case of a German woman who was arrested in the Balearic Islands where she had lived for years without speaking Spanish.</p><div><strong>&#x27;CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME&#x27;</strong></div><p>Most fugitives are found along Spain&#x27;s Mediterranean coast where expat communities are concentrated.</p><p>Malaga and Marbella on the Costa del Sol, which has long been a popular destination for British expats and tourists, are top picks for criminals on the run, said Bautista.</p><p>Laying low on the coast does not guarantee safety -- these are regions with some of the highest arrest rates.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s a cat-and-mouse game. But we usually find them. It just takes patience,&quot; said Gonzalez.</p><p>Police credit wiretaps, monitoring social media and, above all, close international cooperation for their success.</p><p>Through ENFAST, a network of police officers from across Europe who work together to locate internationally wanted criminals, Spain has become a leader in cross-border arrests.</p><p>&quot;Spain is extremely active in extraditions. Sooner or later, fugitives get caught,&quot; said Bautista.</p><p>The walls of Gonzalez&#x27;s elite police unit are lined with mugshots and mementos from years of operations.</p><p>&quot;There may be fugitives living quietly among us. But that doesn&#x27;t mean they will escape forever,&quot; he said.</p><div><strong>— By Valentin Bontemps, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j1ysGEeSne8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HRIpjwzP74U?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Spain's role as a haven for those trying to evade justice is "historic", a French investigator said on condition of anonymity.</p>

Spain's role as a haven for those trying to evade justice is "historic", a French investigator said on condition of anonymity.

Sun, sand and suspects: Spain 'top destination' for fugitive criminals

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Sun, sand and suspects: Spain 'top destination' for fugitive criminals

Agence France-Presse

Published May 28, 2025 03:05 PM PHT

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