UK and Spain Launch Alicante Manhunt for 12 Most Wanted List
The UK and Spain launched the most wanted list campaign in Alicante on Thursday, targeting 12 of the UK’s most wanted criminals suspected of hiding in Spain. The Most Wanted 2026 effort focuses on people accused or convicted of serious crimes and asks British nationals in Spain, Spanish citizens and the public to help identify them.
Alicante Launch Targets British Fugitives
The National Crime Agency and Crimestoppers asked the Spanish Ministry of the Interior for help as they opened the campaign in Alicante. British authorities suspect that some of the 12 fugitives may be blending into Spain’s large British community, including in Malaga, the Balearic Islands and the Levantine coast. Investigations point to possible links with Marbella, Malaga, Alicante and Tenerife.
The fugitives on the list are accused or convicted of drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and sexual offences. That mix gives the campaign a wider reach than a single crime type, because the appeal is aimed at people who may recognize faces, names or old associations in different parts of Spain.
Rob Jones Sends Direct Warning
Rob Jones, the National Crime Agency Director General of Operations, sent a direct message to the fugitives: “Spain is not a safe haven for fugitives, and this collaboration has proven time and again that if you run, we will not stop searching. We will find you and bring you back to face justice.”
Javier Marín, director of CITCO, said during the launch: “Pursuing a fugitive is a way of acknowledging the victims; it is an act of justice because it means empathising with their loss or suffering.” He added: “Every open case keeps the hurt alive, which is why persistence in the search is a form of recognition.”
Previous Arrests In Málaga
The campaign arrives with a record behind it. Since 2019, Spanish law enforcement agencies have arrested 254 British fugitives in Spain who were subject to international arrest warrants, including 86 in Málaga and 54 in Alicante. Operation Capture campaigns began 20 years ago, and collaboration has led to the arrest of 98 of the 111 fugitives publicly named in those campaigns.
The 20th year of the list also puts fresh attention on the people named in it. Simon Dutton, 49, is accused of organising large-scale cocaine imports and money laundering operations, and one seized shipment linked to him was worth £1.5 million. Dean Eighteen, 48, is wanted for allegedly submitting fraudulent VAT refund claims through two companies of which he was the sole director, and authorities believe he left the UK in January 2019.
Derek McGraw Ferguson, 62, is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of Thomas Cameron in Glasgow in 2007, and Scottish Police suspect that he may be living under a false identity. For people in Spain who know the streets, hotels and social circles where these men might be hiding, the campaign turns those local links into the next line of pursuit.
