Dragnet tightens around foreign criminals in Spain

At the head of Spain’s fugitive police is Olga Lizana. Her team works with police and intelligence units around the world to find and arrest fugitive criminals hiding in Spain.

Hers is one of the leading forces undertaking the cleanup of Spain and especially the Costa del Sol, which used to be a safe haven and is still popular with foreign criminals, earning it the moniker “Costa del Crime”.

From 1978 to 1985, extradition agreements between Spain and the UK had broken down, opening the door to criminals sheltering along the Costa.

“This is not a good place for criminals to come anymore,” the 41-year-old said.

Operation Captura has landed 68 out of 86 British criminals who have taken to life in Spain. The joint venture, launched in 2006, harnesses intelligence between Crimestoppers, the British and the Spanish authorities.

The team’s determination can be assessed by the recent capture of three of the 10 people whose cases were publicised in March as Britain’s most wanted in Spain.

“The Brits are in for big crimes – serious robberies, drug trafficking, sex crimes,” she said. “The other ones you have to do because it’s your job, but it’s not the same rush.”

By other ones, she is referring to a request from Romania to find a Polish man wanted for stealing a chicken and a pair of boots. Requests like these are usually given to the local police. As many as 10 requests to find fugitives arrive every day.

At the beginning of her work in a land where team leaders are nearly always men, things looked different.

“The first time I was working with British authorities, I met up with them at the Alicante airport to carry out a surveillance operation. They asked me where the rest of my team was,” she said laughing. “I said there is nobody else.”

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