The National Police have apprehended a 67-year-old Italian man in Arrecife, Lanzarote, following a European arrest warrant for belonging to a criminal organisation dedicated to drug trafficking and murder in his home country.
According to a statement released earlier today (Friday) by the Superior Police Headquarters of the Canary Islands, he was arrested for document forgery and a traffic safety offence in the capital of Lanzarote.
The arrest took place after he was pulled over for riding his motorbike recklessly, and officers discovered that he didn’t have a valid driving license, and that there were suspicious indications of falsification on his Italian identity card.
When they got to National Police headquarters in Arrecife, officers verified the true identity of the man in question, and found that there is an active European arrest and extradition order had been issued against him in October 2019, relating to events that transpired between 1988 and 1995.
The arrest warrant outlined allegations of the man’s involvement in a criminal organisation engaged in drug trafficking, as well as participation in a firearm-related murder in Italy.
Subsequently, office formally arrested him and reported the details to the Central Duty Court Number 2 of the National Court. The presiding judge ordered that the detainee to be brought before the Arrecife duty court, which promptly ordered his immediate remand in provisional custody while he awaits extradition back to Italy.
