Mohamed Amra, a fugitive French prisoner who prompted an international hunt after staging a deadly escape nine months ago, was arrested Saturday in Romania, the French government said. Ten of his alleged accomplices have also been arrested, officials said.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the capture a ”formidable success” and praised European colleagues who had pursued him. French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau thanked ″all the forces who permitted the arrest of Mohamed Amra in Romania today,″ in a post on X.
Romanian police said that Amra was arrested in an operation in the capital, Bucharest.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
Two guards were killed when armed assailants helped Amra escape from a prison convoy in Normandy last May, prompting a high-profile search. Interpol issued a red notice at the request of France for the arrest of Amra.
Amra, 30, fled after being sentenced for burglary in the Normandy town of Evreux. He was also under investigation for an attempted organized homicide and a kidnapping that resulted in death, prosecutors said. Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said that Amra had connections with Marseille’s organized crime syndicates and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.
Amra’s first offenses occurred between the ages of 11 and 14, according to the prosecutor. Nicknamed “La Mouche” (The Fly), Amra has also been referred to by other aliases such as “Yanis,” “Momo,” and “Schtroumpf” (Smurf).
On Sunday, the Paris chief prosecutor said police had also arrested 10 suspected accomplices of Amra.
Amra’s escape and violent history made him a symbol of the challenges faced by French law enforcement in combating organized crime and ensuring the security of high-risk prisoners.
The brutality of the ambush, which was caught on CCTV, shocked France and Amra instantly became the country’s most wanted man.
The authorities tasked more than 300 investigators with finding Amra, who has a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was in his early teens.
According to a 2024 judiciary report, he started out with aggravated robberies and progressively “slid towards violence,” eventually entering the world of organized crime.
The report found that authorities underestimated for some time just how dangerous he had become.
Amra is suspected of pursuing his drug-related activities from his prison cell, and even of ordering hits from detention.
Accomplices allegedly “helped the fugitive to hide”
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin on Sunday published an open letter to prison officers, promising them better working conditions.
He also vowed the creation of “prison police” units and a “high security prison”, in response to concerns that it has become too easy for convicted criminals to continue their business despite being locked up, thanks notably to access to mobile phones.
Such a supermax prison, to be completed within months, would keep France’s “100 biggest drug traffickers” in complete isolation — using Italian anti-mafia laws as a model — so that “a case like Amra’s can never happen again,” Darmanin said.
At the time of his escape, Amra was facing one charge for attempted murder and another for participation in a gangland killing in the southern city of Marseille, a hub for drug trafficking and gang violence.
The Paris prosecutor said in a statement that his 10 suspected accomplices had been detained on Saturday and early Sunday.
Handout via REUTERS
A police source told AFP that they were arrested for the most part in Rouen and Evreux in northwestern France, and that police seized weapons during raids.
“They are suspected of having helped in the preparation and execution of the escape, and having helped the fugitive to hide,” the prosecutor said.
Romanian police said Amra was arrested near a Bucharest shopping center and would be brought before a magistrate who will decide on his extradition to France.
After being alerted by their French colleagues, it took Romanian police just 48 hours to locate, identify and capture Amra, the government in Bucharest said.
Amra, who rejects the charges against him, had agreed to be returned to France, lawyer Maria Marcu said. “He respects the decision of the French authorities who want to put him on trial,” she said.
Beccuau said Amra, who had changed his appearance and dyed his hair, had been identified through facial recognition tools and his fingerprints.
The lawyers for the families of the two agents killed in Amra’s escape said they were “relieved” that he had finally been apprehended.
Escaped convict has history of violent crime
Amra has a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was only 15, according to judicial sources.
“He is very well-known to the judiciary,” Paris chief prosecutor Laure Beccuau told reporters.
Amra has close links to organized crime, said another source close to the case who asked not to be identified, and is suspected of ordering killings linked to the drugs trade.
Another source who asked not to be named said Amra runs his own drug trafficking network.
However, none of his 13 prior convictions — for crimes ranging from armed robbery to extortion — were directly related to the narcotics business, said Beccuau, who is leading the investigation into the motorway attack.
He was jailed in January 2022 in Evreux prison in the northwestern Normandy region to serve several sentences, including for criminal conspiracy, extortion, robbery, armed violence and participation in an illegal motor rodeo
At the time of his escape he was also facing two fresh charges, one for attempted murder and another for participation in a gangland killing in the southern city of Marseille on the French riviera, a hub for drug trafficking and gang violence.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
