He was like a ghost. The National Police had been chasing his shadow for five years, but they never caught him. When the agents managed to learn the false identity under which he operated, the criminal had already changed his name again. An expert in cybersecurity, he also left no digital traces and changed his phone number every two weeks. “His ability to hide is incredible. He is one of the best we have seen,” say the police group that was searching for the most wanted drug trafficker in Germany since 2021. Until last August 24, when they managed to find him in Málaga during his brother’s visit. He is now in prison awaiting extradition to Germany, where he was wanted for drug trafficking and belonging to a criminal organization.
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The first information that the fugitive was in Spain dates back to 2021. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) of Germany then warned that there were indications that he could be on Spanish territory after passing through various European countries. Following his trail was not easy. He changed his phone number every two weeks and his identity every three months. He received a new ID and a new passport under false names and nationalities different from his own. And he did it easily. “He had a large support infrastructure from organized crime to achieve this,” say the National Police Fugitive Group that arrested him. “He was like a ghost: we were always behind him,” insists the agent, who emphasizes how every time they learned his new name, the criminal had already changed it.
Moreover, no one knew where he lived, but they did know what he lived from: international drug trafficking. In fact, he had previously lived in Spain, where he had led a criminal organization that loaded drugs into trucks bound for Germany through France. He had even trained in cybersecurity to avoid leaving digital traces.
After many investigations and dead ends, the agents learned that this summer the fugitive’s brother was heading to Spain. He entered, in his car, through Catalonia, and the police became his shadow. He slept several hours in Barcelona and then continued along the Mediterranean coast to a town in Valencia, where he stopped at a service area and took a nap inside his car. Then he started again heading south. “The colleagues followed him for almost three days without being able to rest,” the policeman emphasizes.
Tracking from Catalonia
The man finally arrived in the city of Málaga on August 24. At dawn he picked up a person whom the agents could not identify, but they continued to follow him and, when they parked and got out of the vehicle, they clearly recognized the fugitive. They immediately arrested him under a European Arrest Warrant issued by Germany, although he also had a judicial warrant from the Spanish authorities.
Surprised, he quickly threw himself to the ground. An expert in martial arts and a good boxer, there were some doubts in the group about how he would react. “In the end, it was a clean arrest,” say the same sources. After being brought before the National Court, the detainee was sent to prison awaiting extradition to his country, where he was considered the most wanted drug trafficker in Germany for leading an organization that trafficked large quantities of drugs into German territory.
