British criminals in Costa del Sol

Spanish authorities help in the detention of eight British criminals on the run in the Costa del Sol

According to information provided by the British Agency for Serious Organized Crime (SOCA) and published in El Mundo today, collaboration between UK and Spanish police has led to the detention of 8 British fugitives living in the Costa del Sol over the last 18 months.

In a press conference set up to present their annual report the Deputy International Director of SOCA, Rob Wainwright, highlighted the level of cooperation that exists between the British and Spanish authorities which in his opinion is currently more productive than at any other time in the past.

In October 2006 SOCA, the London Metropolitan Police together with Spanish police started an initiative to search for and capture British criminals living in the Costa del Sol, an operation which has had ‘fantastic results’. According to Wainright ‘operation capture’ has led to the detention of convicted criminals who were often ‘living a life of luxury’ in the South of Spain.

Since the start of ‘Operation Capture’ Paul Bures, wanted for sexual offences, John Seton, accused of murder and James Hurley, convicted of murdering a policeman and who escaped police custody in 1994 are among some of the criminals who have been detained.

Wainright said that ‘Operation Capture’ illustrated how important cooperation between countries is in the search for wanted criminals in a globalized world. He also stressed the importance of European laws of arrest and in speeding up the process of detaining suspected criminals living in other EU member states.