Notorious fugitive 'The Fly' extradited to France after arrest in Romania

Mohamed Amra, a French fugitive whose prison escape killed two guards last year, was arrested in Romania's Bucharest and was extradited to France on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old, who has been dubbed as 'The Fly', was arrested near a shopping centre in the capital, ending a nine-month international manhunt.

After a reporter asked "Are you happy to return to France?", Amra, who had dyed his hair orange, possibly to evade detection, simply replied with "I love you, Mum, that's all."

The search began last year in May, when Amra managed to escape after armed men ambushed a prison convoy in Normandy. The incident killed two guards, including the driver, and seriously injured three others.

Amra had been sentenced for burglarly in the Normandy town of Evreux, and was additionally suspected of heading a drug trafficking network. He was also under investigation for an attempted organised homicide and a kidnapping that resulted in death, French prosecutors said.

After his escape, international police organisation Interpol issued a notice for his arrest and French investigators warned their counterparts in other countries after they suspected Amra had fled France.

How was Amra arrested?

Investigators had tapped Amra's phone, and discovered roughly two weeks ago that he was preparing to leave for Romania, where the 30-year-old had rented an apartment in the north of Bucharest for six months.

From the 8th of February, the Romanian police closely surveilled the security cameras monitoring the residence. On Saturday, Amra left his home for the first time and was shortly after arrested by special forces.

A Romanian police spokesperson said the 30-year-old had arrived into the country with car that had French number plates, and was accompanied by an Albanian driver.

"He kept a low profile. They bought him provisions and water, and gave him some money," he added.

French President Emmanuel Macron called his capture as a “formidable success” and praised European colleagues who had ended the long cross-border hunt.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau thanked all the forces invovled in Mohamed Amra's arrest in Romania. "Mohamed Amra is back in France and incarcerated under strict surveillance. He will have to answer for his actions," he wrote on X.

Amra's court-appointed lawyer, Maria Marcu, claimed her client is not guilty.

"My client wants to prove his innocence. He is not guilty of what happened. And that's why he wants to go before the French authorities as soon as possible," she said.