Two of Europe's most wanted fugitives have been arrested in separate international operations supported by Europol, the agency announced on Thursday.
In the first case, a 29-year-old Turkish national wanted by Germany was arrested in Turkey in early May 2026, just days after his profile was published on the EU Most Wanted website as part of Europol's Operational Task Force GRIMM, which targets individuals linked to so-called violence-as-a-service criminal networks: organised crime groups that carry out contract violence, including murders and assaults, on behalf of paying clients. German authorities suspect the man acted as the instigator of an attempted murder carried out on 26 April 2025 in Ludwigsburg, and an international arrest warrant had previously been issued by the Stuttgart Regional Court in connection with an ongoing investigation by the Ludwigsburg police department and the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office.
In a separate operation on 15 May, Italian and Spanish authorities arrested Pietro Izzo, 59, a suspected senior figure within the Licciardi clan of the Neapolitan Camorra, near Alicante's Santa Barbara Castle on Spain's Costa Blanca. Izzo, who carries the nickname "the firefighter" for reasons that remain unclear, had been living among the local expat community and had reportedly been planning his 60th birthday celebration when he was detained. He had been on the run since June 2025, when Italian judicial authorities issued a detention order against him on charges of aggravated extortion using mafia methods.
The Licciardi clan is a leading component of the Secondigliano Alliance, one of the most powerful criminal organisations within the Camorra, which controls drug trafficking and extortion rackets across Naples and maintains branches in Spain and the Netherlands. Europol's investigators tracked Izzo to the Alicante area by monitoring the movements of close relatives who were preparing to travel to Spain. He was arrested in the company of family members.
The investigation was conducted in cooperation between the Italian State Police, the Spanish National Police, the European Network of Fugitive Active Search Teams (ENFAST) and Europol.
Source: CNN
