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Interpol Makes Public Appeal to Track 26 Fugitives

   Selah Hennessy | London 05 July 2010
   Interpol employees work in the control room of the Infra-Red operation
   in Lyon, central France. International police agency Interpol launches
   an  unusual  appeal  to  the  global  public to report sightings of 26
   leading fugitives, whether on the street or on a

Photo: AP

   Interpol employees work in the control room of the Infra-Red operation
   in Lyon, central France. International police agency Interpol launches
   an  unusual  appeal  to  the  global  public to report sightings of 26
   leading   fugitives,   whether   on   the  street  or  on  a  Facebook
   page.Interpol  has  been  leading  an  international  operation,called
   Infra-Red, since May aimed at tracking down 450 particularly dangerous
   fugitives, and has arrested 39 people as a result, 5 Jul 2010.

   The  international  police  agency  Interpol  has  launched an unusual
   public  appeal  to  track  down  26 fugitives.  Interpol has released
   photos  and  biographical information on the 26 suspects and has asked
   the public to report any sightings.Â
   Martin  Cox  from  Interpol says the 26 people who have been named are
   particularly  dangerous.  "All  of these people are wanted for serious
   crimes.   They  are  serial  rapists and murderers, serious child sex
   offenders,  serious  fraud,  and  also  drug  smugglers and dealers as
   well," he explained.
   Interpol  launched an international operation in May aimed at tracking
   down  450  fugitives.   Around a quarter of those have been caught or
   located, but Cox says these 26 are proving particularly difficult.
   He  says  the  hope  is  they  may have been spotted by members of the
   public.  "They  might  actually  meet  them online, for instance, in a
   social networking site or a chat room.  They might actually meet them
   on  that.   And  they might be meet them on a club, which is actually
   online,  a  lot  of  people do these gaming online as well," he said.Â
   "So  it  might  not  just  be  actually  meeting them in a bar or on a
   street,  but  they  actually  might  meet them through the internet as
   well."
   This  is not the first time Interpol has used a public appeal to track
   someone  down.   It first did so in 2007 to locate a man suspected of
   abusing children in South-East Asia, Canadian citizen Christopher Paul
   Neil was arrested in Thailand only 10 days later.
   But  this  is the first time Interpol has made an appeal to the public
   on  such a large scale.  Cox says it is part of an effort by Interpol
   to  be more proactive in its hunt for fugitives. "A lot of information
   on  fugitives  is  kept  in  our  databases and to a certain extent if
   somebody  crosses  a border or if they are arrested as part of another
   operation then they effectively have a trip-wire," he said.  "What we
   are  trying  to  do  now  is  to  have  a  look at some of these older
   fugitives  that  are  being  out there for a long time and proactively
   dust off the actually files and go after them."
   On  the  list  of  26  fugitives  are  people from all over the world,
   including South Africa, Britain, Bangladesh, and Canada.

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