The French Muslim fugitive known as 'The Fly', who was freed in a deadly prison van ambush, fled to Romania for plastic surgery, and was planning to start a new life in Colombia when he was finally caught by police, officials have revealed.
Mohamed Amra was labelled France's 'public enemy number one' after two guards were shot dead by masked gunmen during the military-style ambush last May. The drug kingpin's escape sparked an international manhunt.
He fled the country and disguised himself by dying his hair red and wearing glasses, but police were able to identify and arrest him in a sting near a shopping centre in Bucharest on Saturday.
The 30-year-old's identity was confirmed by facial recognition and the comparison of fingerprints, the Paris prosecutor said following the joint operation with the Romanian authorities.
Amra grinned as he was hauled to and from court in Bucharest by heavily armed guards yesterday, and even brazenly joked with journalists that he was 'on holiday' in Romania rather than on the run.
Dominique Garcia, the father of one of the two prison officers who was killed during Amra's escape, responded to the footage by slamming the criminal's 'full of himself' attitude.
Arnaud Garcia's father told RMC that Amra's arrest is 'a relief' and that he was 'happy' that 'no one was hurt on the police side' as they were in the bloody prison convoy attack, adding: 'Amra is not human.'
Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu told France 2 last night that Amra had 'wanted to have cosmetic surgery' in Romania, and intended to 'leave the country for Colombia.'
Amra, nicknamed 'La Mouche' (The Fly), was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy before the bloodbath unfolded
Mohamed Amra grinned as he was hauled to and from court in Bucharest by heavily armed guards today
The 30-year-old disguised himself by dying his hair red and wearing glasses, but police were able to identify and arrest him in a sting near a shopping centre
Amra gets out of a van as policemen escort him to the court of appeal in Bucharest yesterday
French police said today that they have arrested some two dozen suspects in connection with the notorious gangster's escape last year.
The terrifying attack at a motorway toll station in north-west France sparked a huge manhunt which saw several hundred police, including France's elite anti-terror unit, search for the suspected drug kingpin and his accomplices.
Dramatic footage showed the chilling moment the prison van was rammed by a black SUV before gunmen, in hoods and balaclavas, who appeared and opened fire with military-grade weapons.
The gunmen fled with prisoner Amra, who also goes by aliases such as Yanis, Momo and Schtroumpf (The Smurf). During the hunt to locate the assailants, they were described as 'armed and very dangerous'.
After nine months on the run, Amra was eventually arrested on the orders of the investigating judges in Bucharest over the weekend.
His detention appears to have sparked a series of arrests, including of ten individuals in raids in France this morning and several others abroad.
A man was reportedly arrested in Spain on Saturday while raids are also said to have taken place in Morocco, where two men were arrested, and in Thailand , where a suspected accomplice of Amra was taken into custody.
'In total, there are 24 police custody cases in progress,' the Paris public prosecutor's office reportedly noted.
A graphic detailing how the deadly attack unfolded at a toll station in north-west France
Footage also shows gunmen at the scene, filmed from a passing coach, where two guards were shot dead
The daylight attack on the high security prison van took place as the convoy was two-thirds of the way through a 34-mile journey from Rouen in Normandy, transporting Amra back to jail in the town of Évreux after a court hearing.
Amra, who allegedly ordered a gangland execution two years ago, had appeared before an investigating magistrate in the morning.
As the convoy paused at Incarville tollbooth on the A154 motorway near Val-de-Reuil, the SUV drove into the lead van, effectively blocking it.
Masked men in black emerged from two other cars, brandishing weapons, believed to be pump action rifles and automatic machine guns.
They opened fire with armed officers inside the prison vans firing back. One of the attackers is believed to have been injured in the shoot-out.
The coordinated attack was over in five minutes, having been played out in front of motorists, including a coach whose passengers took mobile phone videos.
Amra and the gang escaped in two cars, an Audi A5 and a BMW 5 series, which were later found abandoned and burnt out.
French authorities were seen towing away a burnt-out vehicle used in the inmate's escape on May 14
Forensic officer at work at the site of a ramming attack which took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France last year
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said that Amra had connections with Marseille's organised crime syndicates and headed a drug trafficking network.
He has also reportedly been linked to organised crime and drug trafficking as well as to kidnapping and murder.
Amra was convicted of a series of aggravated thefts last week and given an 18-month sentence after using a gun to rob supermarkets in Évreux in 2019.
He has a total of 13 convictions and was also being held in connection with an attempted murder in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, and the execution of a man in Marseille in June 2022.
Amra is nicknamed 'The Fly' because of his multiple convictions and his involvement in a range of crimes, with a source saying: 'He's everywhere, like an annoying fly.'
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said: 'These are people for whom life counts for nothing.'
French prison guards wear bullet proof vests and have handguns when transporting prisoners.
They do not have to stop or pay at toll stations but they are often slowed by traffic, making them vulnerable to attacks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14429687/Fugitive-Fly-prison-van-ambush-Romania-cosmetic-surgery-dyed-hair-Colombia.html
