A 48-year-old Belgian man, previously convicted of drug trafficking, was arrested in Berlin on Thursday, according to a statement from the Dutch police.
The defendant, known as Tom M., is facing eight years behind bars in Belgium and an additional 11 years in the Netherlands for trafficking cocaine, heroin, and money laundering.
He had been on the run since September 2020 and was previously detained in Dubai, earning him a spot on Europe’s most wanted list.
The arrest was the result of a tight-knit operation between the German, Belgian, and Dutch Fugitive Active Search Teams (Fast) – autonomous investigative units tasked with actively tracking, locating, and apprehending fugitives both locally and abroad.
In early 2023, police received information that the man was staying in Germany. On Thursday evening, he was arrested in the same catering establishment where he had been spotted in 2023. It then emerged that he had managed to stay inconspicuously in the German capital under a false identity.
As he also has to serve a prison sentence in the Netherlands, the Dutch authorities are also asking for the extradition. The German court will have to decide. As the man is a Belgian national, he will probably be extradited to Belgium first.
