With Brexit looming, questions remain over the UK’s relationship with The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, or EuroPol.
Headquartered in The Hague in the Netherlands, EuroPol is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU) and serves as a cross-border police force to track criminals through cooperation between the EU member states.
It’s focus is primarily on cracking down on serious international organised crime and terrorism through the sharing of information across borders.
But with the UK leaving the EU, there have been warnings from UK police chiefs that the country’s fight against international crime will be slowed.
Cross-border investigations will have to be reorganised if the UK crashes out of the EU’s security agency with the National Crime Agency saying in November that the UK makes ‘extensive use’ of Europol’s ‘significant and unique capabilities’.
Pictured: Europol building, The Hague, the Netherlands, is the headquarters of Europol, a European organization, in which national police forces cooperate
Part of those capabilities include the hunting for criminals on the run from their home nations in the European Union, many of whom are wanted for murder, rape, drug offences and other serious crimes.
There are currently 50 people on Europol’s most wanted list. Out of them, 47 are male and three are female, with ages ranging from 21 to 72.
32 nationalities are represented on the list – some also from outside of the EU that are wanted in its member states, with Bulgaria being the most represented nation with four people, while France and Russia both have three.
The UK has two members on the list – one from England and one from Scotland – both of whom are wanted for murder. The English man – Nathan Smith – is believed to be on the run somewhere on the continent.
Nathan Smith – Male, 27 – English
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury
State of case: Failed to attend court
Nathan Smith, wanted for murder
Nathan Smith, a 27-year-old male, is currently the one entry from England on EuroPol’s most wanted list.
He is wanted by police in connection with a fatal stabbing in London’s Finsbury Park on Friday, 3 January 2020, that saw the death of Takieddine Boudhane – known as Taki.
The 30-year-old Algerian delivery driver was involved in a traffic alteration in London which escalated to him being stabbed to death
London’s Metropolitan Police is offering up to a £10,000 reward for information that could lead to the identification, arrest and prosecution for the person responsible for Taki’s death.
‘We are very keen to speak to Nathan Smith as part of our ongoing enquiries,’ Detective Chief Inspector Neil John, who is leading the investigation, said of the case.
‘We know that he fled the country the day after Taki’s murder, initially travelling to Austria and then onto Switzerland. We are confident he has now moved elsewhere in Europe or potentially further afield.
‘There is a European Arrest Warrant out for Nathan and our enquiries continue in several countries, with assistance from the NCA,’ John said.
He added that the police believe there are also people who know of Smith’s whereabouts, or that have seen him over the past 6 months, and have urged them to contact the Met.
They add that Smith has connections to north London, particularly the areas of Islington, Camden and Kittenish Town.
Derek Ferguson – Male, 57 – Scottish
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury
State of case: Failed to attend court
Derek Ferguson, wanted for murder and other gangland activities
Scotland’s ‘most wanted man’ Derek ‘Deco’ Ferguson is the only other current UK member of EuroPol’s most wanted list after Nathan Smith.
He has been on the run since the 2007 murder of Thomas Cameron at the Auchinairn Tavern, Bishopbriggs near Glasgow, which he is wanted in connection to.
The gangland enforcer has also been linked with a second murder – of a second suspect named Billy Bates, who’s body was found dumped in the river Clyde in an oil drum.
He was found out following a hacking operation by the National Crime Agency that uncovered thousands of encrypted text messages.
He is believed to have fled to his Spanish hiding place and is moving between safe houses out of fear that the police will finally track him down.
Mob bosses reportedly used the encrypted system to talk about drug deals, plan robberies and organise hits – thinking it was secure from the cops – who turned out to be reading their messages for three months.
Elena Puzyrvich – Female, 40 – Russian
Wanted for: Trafficking in human beings
State of case: Ongoing investigation
Elena Puzyrvich, wanted for human trafficking
Along with her business partner, Elena Puzyrvich ran a club in the Cáceres region of Spain.
Nine Russian women – all of whom lacked official residence and work permits in Spain – worked out of the club.
Puzyrvich was later convicted after it was proven that she was in charge of controlling the club’s accounts, and controlling the Russian woman who were working as prostitutes.
Using her connections in her home country, she was able to lure Russian woman to Spain to work for her.
The girls were given a tourist visa and a plane ticket to travel to Spain, being collected – sometimes by Elena herself – upon arrival at Barajas airport, Europol says.
They would be taken to the club where they would practice prostitution indefinitely and without any legal labour regulations.
Some of the girls were decieved over the type of work they would be doing under Puzyrvich, and were forced into prostitution by being told they were in debt to Puzyrvich because of their travel costs.
Puzyrvich was sentenced to a total of 12 and a half years for illegal detention, determination to prostitution and for the crime against the rights of foreign citizens. She is now on the run.
Tibor Foco – Male, 64 – Austrian
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury
State of case: Ongoing investigation
Tibor Foco, wanted for murder and grevious bodily injury
The Criminal Intelligence Service of Austria is offering a 20,000 EURO reward for Tibor Foco, who was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of 23-year-old Elfriede Hochgatterer – a prostitute – on March 13, 1986.
Foco was a pimp, but also previously a motorcycle mountain racing champion.
On the night of the murder, Foco killed Hochgatterer with a gunshot to the face using a revolver, near some railway tracks in Linz.
Hochgatterer worked around 200 metres away from where her body was found the following day – at the red-light ‘restaurant Bunny’, which belonged to Foco.
He was arrested the next day, but denied the act and received an alibi from his ex-wife, who later revoked it.
A year later, on March 31 1987, Foco was sentenced to life in prison, but the case has since been reopened.
On April 27, 1995 Foco escaped from Prison while he was on leave to study. While at the Faculty of Law at the University of Linz, he was able to escape with the help of an accomplice who left a garage key and tear gas in the University’s toilet.
Foco escaped from a private garage on a black Kawasaki ZX 750 F ‘Ninja’ motorcycle, which is yet to be found to this day. The escape was found to have been planned for years.
Plank Zoltan – Male, 54 – Hungarian
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury & Organised or armed robbery
State of case: Ongoing investigation
Hungarin Plank Zoltan, wanted for Murder, grievous bodily injury & Organised or armed robbery
Hungarian Plank Zoltan and his businesses associates are wanted for allegedly hiring two assassins to kill one of their former partners.
The assassins found their target on August 25, 2014 outside of his house, where they stabbed him multiple times.
They left him on the ground thinking was dead, but the man was found and taken to hospital. In the end, he survived the attack.
A month later, Zoltan and his gang allegedly stopped a car full of Chinese tourists while impersonating police officers.
The men robbed the tourists of 400,000,000 Hungarian forint (1.282 million EUROS), Hungarian officials have said.
A friend of the victims saw the robbery unfold and followed the men, who fired warning shots with a machine gun so they could escape.
Zoltan, who could now be sporting long hair, is on the run.
Elizabeth Dizon Honrada – Female, 58 – Filipino
Wanted for: Illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances
State of case: Sentenced to five years in prison
Elizabeth Dizon Honrada, wanted for drug trafficking
Elizabeth Dizon Honrada is one of a number of people in EuroPol’s most wanted list from outside of the EU who are wanted within it.
In 2006, Honrada was convicted to five years in prison for importing cocaine into the Netherlands.
On April 15, 2003 she imported 30 kilograms of Class A drug, having imported 15 kilograms a month earlier in March.
Both shipments were imported from the South African country of Suriname.
She is still yet to complete the five year sentence, which is irrevocable.
Since 2005, she has been on the run and her location is unknown to police.
She has been wanted on an international level since 2010, and in 2014 it was believes she could have been staying in Saudi Arabia.
Hamid Nour Eddine G Ibrahim – Male, 40 – Libyan
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury
State of case: Ongoing investigation
Hamid Nour Eddine G Ibrahim, wanted for murder and grievous bodily harm
On March 11, 2015, a woman was found dead in her apartment’s bedroom in St Paul’s Bay in Malta.
An investigation concluded that she had been killed by her former partner, Hamid Nour Eddine G Ibrahim.
The autopsy showed that the victim died to five stab wounds on the same day that her body was discovered.
That same day, Ibrahim fled the island a couple of hours before the body of the victim was discovered.
Officials learned that he took a flight to Italy, but sources later informed Maltese police that he was seen in Dublin, Ireland a month later.
Dublin is his last known whereabouts, and he has been on the run since fleeing Malta.
Giovanni Motisi – Male, 61 – Italian
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury, Participation in a criminal organisation
State of case: Life imprisonment
Mafia boss Giovanni Motisi, wanted for murder and criminal enterprise
Giovanni Motisi was one of the bosses of the Italian ‘Cosa Nostra’ Sicilian Mafia, and is wanted for committing several serious and brutal murders.
Motisi, also known as ‘The Fatman’ is also believes to have taken part in slaughters and fire arms offences, making him one of Europe’s most wanted, and has been on the Italy’s most wanted list since 1998, and has been on the run since 1993.
He was considered to be one of the more powerful bosses of Palermo.
He rose in the ranks as one of the killers for boss of bosses Totò Riina and his Corleonesi, but became close to Bernardo Provenzano when the latter took over the position of Riina as head of Cosa Nostra.
He received a life sentence in 1985 for the murder of a police officer. In 2001 he narrowly escaped an attempt to arrest him.
In 2002 he was replaced as one of the Mafia head of the Pagliarelli because as a fugitive he was seen as not managing the mafia successfully.
To this day, his whereabouts are unknown. Some believe he is dead, while others dispute this and say that he is hiding in the south of Sicily.
Matteo Messina Denaro – Male, 58 – Italian
Wanted for: Murder, grievous bodily injury, Participation in a criminal organisation
State of case: Convicted to life imprisonment
Matteo Messina Denaro, the boss of bosses
Like Giovanni Motisi, Matteo Messina Denaro is also wanted in connection to his involvement in the Italian mafia.
Not only is he one of Europe’s most wanted people, but he is also seen as one of the most wanted people in the world.
Known as ‘Diabolik’, he is another boss of the Sicilian Mafia, and considered one of the new leaders of of Cosa Nostra after the arrest of Bernardo Provenzano on 11 April 2006, and the arrest of Salvatore Lo Piccolo in November 2007.
He is thought to have connections to the murders of 50 people, including a series of car bombs that killed 10, including two prosecutors.
He became known nationally in 2001 when he appeared on the cover of L’Espresso magazine along with the headline ‘Here is the new head of the Mafia’, or, ‘Here is the new Mafia boss’.
He has been a fugitive since 1993 and is – affording to Forbes magazine – among the top 10 most wanted criminals in the world, even featuring in Netflix’s ‘world’s most dangerous criminals’.
With the deaths of Bernardo Provenzano in 2016 and Salvatore Riina in 2017, Messina Denaro is seen as the unchallenged boss of all bosses within the Mafia.
Davit Kuzmyn – Male, 48 – Ukranian
Wanted for: Laundering of the proceeds of crime, Participation in a criminal organisation and trafficking in stolen vehicles
State of case: Ongoing investigation
Davit Kuzmyn, wanted for luxury car theft
Davit Kuzmyn is wanted for his alleged participation in several thefts of luxury cars in Luxembourg at the end of 2019.
He is also believed to be a member of a large criminal organisation.
Some of his accomplices have already been arrested and are in custody in Luxembourg, while others are still on the run.
EuroPol says that Kuzmyn uses several aliases to avoid detection, and that his whereabouts are currently unknown.
Kuzmyn has also used the cover names Davit Kuzmini, Davit Kamladze and Davit Getiashvili in the past.
Abdul Majed and Mohammed Remmo (Twins) – Male, 21 – German
Wanted for: Arson, Organised or armed robbery
State of case: Ongoing investigation
The German crime family linked to last year’s spectacular art heist in Dresden is one of Berlin‘s most notorious clans with a long record of gang violence and infamous crimes to its name.
The Remmo family, regarded as one of the most dangerous players in the so-called ‘Arab mafia’ in Berlin, hit the spotlight again after five of its members were named as suspects in last November’s Green Vault burglary.
Three Remmo suspects were arrested for robbery and arson in a massive police raid on Tuesday while two others, twin brothers Mohamed and Abdul Majed Remmo, are wanted on the same charges.
Twin brothers Mohamed and Abdul Majed Remmo, are wanted on charges of robbery and arson for their alleged involvement in last November’s Green Vault burglary in Dresden
The pair are now both on EuroPol’s most wanted list for their involvement in the heist on the morning November 25, 2019.
After Remmo family patriarchs moved to Europe from war-torn Lebanon in the 1980s, the clan first came to police attention following German reunification, beginning with the murder of a restaurant owner in 1992.
Since then, their series of eye-catching raids has included the theft of a £3million giant gold coin from a Berlin museum and an £8million bank robbery which ended in the branch blowing up.
The long list of crimes has led to numerous Remmo family members being jailed and some of their properties being seized – but their crime spree has not been halted.
Berlin has sometimes seen violent clashes between Remmo gangsters and rival clans which have ended in stabbings and shootings. One family member, Nidal Remmo, was shot dead in 2018.
Another Remmo relative was accused of clubbing a man to death with a baseball bat in 2017, but was found not guilty last year in a verdict which prosecutors are appealing to a higher court.
2019: A room in the Green Vault in Dresden where priceless items which once belonged to Augustus of Saxony was burgled last year in what authorities suspect was the latest in the Remmo crime family’s list of spectacular thefts
There were ugly scenes during the hearing as clan boss Issa Remmo, the father of the defendant, had to be wrestled away after rushing into the courtroom.
One of the family’s most spectacular raids came in 2014 when a gang of robbers stormed the safe deposits of a Berlin bank and stole around £8million worth of cash, jewellery and gold bars.
The burglars poured petrol on the floor to cover their traces, causing an explosion which nearly destroyed the entire bank.
DNA evidence eventually led to the conviction of Toufic Remmo, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2015.
Three years later, German police and prosecutors seized 77 properties worth £9million which were allegedly bought with the proceeds from the robbery.