Coast del Crime: The Spanish criminals on the run who flee to Britain

Spain has long been infamous as a magnet for British villains to hide out from justice as they enjoy the sunshine on the costas – while keeping one look over their shoulders.

Now, however, it seems the tables have been turned and Spanish criminals are increasingly disappearing among the tapas bars run by their countrymen in Britain.

More Coast del Crime than Costa del Crime.

Detectives have noted a rising number of Spanish criminals who are hiding out in the UK, according to the head of the Spanish National Police unit, which captures Spanish and Latin American fugitives abroad.

Constantin Alin Alexandrescu, 28, who was born in Spain but is from a Romanian family, was wanted for murder after he allegedly attacked a member of a rival crime gang in Madrid in 2016.

Detectives tracked his movements to Britain by watching posts he put on social media, including one in which he posed with his pitbull terrier.

At first he was thought to be hiding in Manchester, then police working with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Scotland Yard, arrested him last month in Woolwich, south London.

A police officer was injured during the arrest as Alexandrescu was with his pitbull. He now faces trial in Spain for homicide.

“Just like British criminals who come to Spain, they all hide in communities where there are other Spaniards. These are mostly in London, but also in Liverpool and Birmingham,” said the inspector who leads the unit. He could not be named because he works undercover at times.

“This is happening because more Spaniards have moved over to Britain in recent years for economic reasons to find a job as the situation is better in the UK than Spain. They also come over to learn the language. These wanted criminals hide out among them. It is easier that way.”

This year, the Spanish fugitives unit is hunting or has detained 20 people – six of which were in the UK.

“Another reason is they are coming to the UK is the level of English among the younger generation is much higher so Britain is not a problem,” said the inspector.

Against this background, the number of Spaniards living in Britain has risen steadily from 65,000 in 2008 to 185,000 last year, according to data from Statista.

With unemployment among young people hitting 50 per cent in Spain in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, many sought to find jobs as waiters or barmaids. Others sought to study in Britain through the Erasmus scheme, which has ended now because of Brexit.

Other groups of professionals – like doctors, scientists or bankers – have sought better paid jobs in Britain than they could ever hope to find in their own country.

“The scale of Spanish criminals coming to Britain to hide is nothing like that of British fugitives in Spain, but it is growing and it is a tendency that we have noticed,” the Spanish officer told The Independent.

In the hunt to track down these homespun villains hiding out in London or Liverpool, the Spanish police have not been hampered by Brexit.

“We simply have to put our requests through Interpol rather than Sirene, the European Union police agency. Interpol handles international requests. But we have not had any delays or problems,” said the inspector.

After the pandemic made travelling difficult last year, eight Spaniards were detained or wanted in the UK for offences varying from trafficking drugs, money laundering or sexually abusing children.

In comparison, last year the Spanish police were asked to find 980 foreign criminals who had fled to Spain to escape justice, a much lower figure than in most average years.

The NCA said in the past five years on average 34 people have been extradited from Spain to the UK every year, with 20 going the other way each year.

An NCA spokesperson said: “As with fugitives who go abroad, it is common for those who flee to Spain to want to live in communities where they share the same culture and speak the same language.

“We will continue to work closely with our partners in Spain and the UK to ensure nowhere is a safe haven for criminals on the run.”

Today Spain is a far cry from the 1970s when British criminals believed that they could retire to Spain out of the reach of the long arm of the law – leading to the nickname Costa del Crime – because there was no extradition treaty between the UK and Spain until 1985.

Villains including Ronnie Knight, the former husband of the late Dame Barbara Windsor, and Frederick Foreman along with their associates – who were behind the £28m Brink’s-Mat bullion robbery at Heathrow – fled to Spain to escape extradition.

Now, Spain retains the same allure as a bolt hole for criminals across the world who are on the run.

“For the British, there are the ghettos where they speak English, the good food, the weather, which keeps bringing them back,” said a police source involved in tracking fugitives.