Dilip Kuner
SPANISH police say they have arrested a fugitive British cocaine dealer who is supposed to be serving a life sentence in the UK.
The 37-year-old, only identified by his initials PDT, was picked up in Estepona, near Marbella, on the Costa del Sol.
No indication has been given on how the fugitive ended up in Spain rather than behind bars in the UK.
A police spokesman said: “National Police have arrested a wanted 37-year-old British man.
“He was held on an International Arrest Warrant for a crime of drugs trafficking.
“He belonged to a criminal gang that supplied cocaine in the northwest of England.”
The news of the arrest comes just after the ringleader a British cocaine trafficking gang who was tracked down to a Marbella strip club was jailed for 12 years by Liverpool Crown Court.
Dominic McInally, 30, from Formby, Merseyside, had been on the run from drugs charges in the UK for six years.
He was detained by Policia Nacional in a raid on the Casa Masa Club. Merseyside police had been looking for him since January 2014, when officers intercepted a car in Crosby and found six kilos of cocaine in a hidden compartment.
Five members of the group led by McInally were later sentenced to a total of 48 years’ imprisonment.
Kathryn Clarke, Head of the National Crime Agency’s International Crime Bureau, said: “NCA officers, with the support of Merseyside Police and the Spanish National Police, tracked McInally down and he was arrested at a nightclub in Spain.
“Through our Operation Captura fugitives campaign, we’ve now apprehended 85 people hiding out overseas, including McInally.
“Criminals who flee the country thinking they can evade capture are no less a priority for law enforcement. The NCA will do all in its power to track fugitives down, and see that they are returned to the UK to face justice.”
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