Episode 5 Fugitives


Episode 5

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Transcript


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-Come on!

-On the run.

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-Get back here!

-And over here.

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Hands out now. Hands out!

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When foreign criminals flee their home countries, many hide out in the UK.

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-Give me your hands.

-But if they think they're safe, they're wrong.

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They know they're wanted.

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A lot of these people are waiting for that knock on the door.

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But the traffic in fugitives isn't all one way.

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Across Europe, there are hundreds of British criminals also trying to escape justice.

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From the sun-drenched Costas, to the busy streets of the Dutch capital...

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..this is how the police take down the fugitives...

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You're under arrest under the Extradition Act 2003.

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Police officer.

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..both at home and abroad.

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Coming up on today's programme...

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It's an early start for the Metropolitan Police's extradition team,

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searching for a vicious man hiding from the law.

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He is wanted for an assault back home in Lithuania.

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There's a big knife there. You just never know what's going to happen,

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so you've just got to be aware of what's around you.

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In Leeds, the family man guilty of petty theft...

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Three offences of shoplifting.

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..having to face the fact that crime doesn't pay.

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Quite a tragedy for that family, but he brought it upon himself.

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Over 12,000 fugitives from other European countries are thought to be hiding out in the UK.

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Many choose to live amongst London's population of almost nine million.

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Catching them is the work of the Metropolitan Police's extradition unit,

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a dedicated team of almost 30 detectives.

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We don't want criminals thinking

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that the UK is a safe haven for them to come to.

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And, of course, if you've got somebody who's committing burglary

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or robbery or a serious sex offender, the likelihood is

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they're going to be committing that crime here in the UK.

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Today, like every day, detectives from the extradition unit

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have a long list of European arrest warrants to serve.

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On the early shift, DCs Jamie Darby and Dave Salmon

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are on their way to Newham in East London.

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The first fugitive they're after, Jose Trigo Raul,

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has already been found guilty of a violent crime.

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I think he's from Angola originally.

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He's wanted by Portugal for a European arrest warrant.

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Armed robbery and assault with a knife.

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And he's got a six-year sentence to serve.

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The wanted man has been found guilty of 11 offences,

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many of them violent.

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The officers need to be careful.

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When they arrive, Jamie deploys his team to cover all the exits.

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Tom, this is the address just here on the corner.

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Number 2. If you don't mind, would you stand on the corner?

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-Yeah.

-If you hear anyone come out the back,

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Officer Willis is just going to be just here.

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-Just give us a quick shout.

-Yeah, sure.

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We're going to knock on the door, me, Dave and Ed,

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and we'll see who comes to the door and take it from there, OK?

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-Okey doke.

-OK.

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A lot of foreign national offenders,

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they are up and out very early in the morning.

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So we have found that doing a very early morning call

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enables us to often get people in.

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Whereas if we go later during the day, they're not going to be there.

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In this case, the early start pays off.

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It is 5.50am in the morning and there's obviously someone at home.

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Morning. Police officers.

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-Oh, hi.

-Who lives here, my friend?

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-Me and my son.

-The man who answers isn't their target.

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He's only recently moved in...

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..but Jamie spots some letters addressed to the fugitive.

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Who are the letters for? Can I have a look? Do you mind?

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-Yeah.

-Has anyone ever come round to pick any letters up or anything?

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-No, no.

-The officers seize the letters,

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hoping they'll provide vital information about Raul's location.

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He obviously lived there at some time because he's got lots of post

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in his name, so it's obviously an old address.

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The officers that I have in the extradition unit

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are very, very experienced and I think over the years

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they have learnt that if you go in

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and treat people with respect in the way that they should be,

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you get a much better response from the occupants of the building.

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And it means that they will cooperate with you as well,

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more often than not.

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Often you'll get some information that will give you new leads,

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so that we're able to progress that investigation.

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Although this fugitive remains on the run for now,

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the team already have another criminal in their sights.

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Next on the list is a wanted man who has fled from Lithuania.

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It's a gentleman wanted for theft and actual bodily harm.

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We have some intel from the Department for Work and Pensions that he's...

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So we're going to give it a knock.

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Lithuania have sent over an image.

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The fugitive, Lithuanian Eligijus Petrikonis,

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has been found guilty of fraud and assault back home.

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So he's got a remaining sentence of two years and three months to serve...

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..and it looks like he was sentenced in his absence.

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So he's fled Lithuania...

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..and he's popped up over here.

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From the information on the warrant,

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it looks like another potentially dangerous job.

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You just think about who's going to be in the flat.

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You can knock on a door and there can be one person in there,

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or you can have about six or seven people come out of different rooms.

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Especially when we knock on the doors,

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there's normally only two or three of us,

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so you've got to be aware of who is going to be at the address.

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You go and knock on the door of someone who's wanted for GBH

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or a robbery where a knife's been used,

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you think a bit more about it.

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Later, the team face a race across town during rush hour

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to get to Petrikonis's last-known address before he leaves for the day.

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He's got to know that he's got this prison sentence to serve back in Lithuania,

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so he's going to be anxious to not be caught.

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Amsterdam. The Dutch capital, with its bars, cafes and canals

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has long been popular with tourists.

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It's also a magnet for criminals and fugitives from British justice.

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But Dutch police are fighting back.

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The serious and organised crime team in the capital is headed by this man - Jeroen Poelert.

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Amsterdam is a very nice place to live and to visit,

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and we are proud of that.

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And Amsterdam for criminals,

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it's also a capital for the organised crime.

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Sometimes they have guns, sometimes they have problems between each other,

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so our main thing is that we worry about kidnapping and murders.

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That's why we have a strong focus to catch them.

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Amsterdam is a favoured bolthole for criminals on the run from the Liverpool area.

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One dangerous fugitive who took that route was notorious Merseyside gangster James Taylor.

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Taylor was known to the police. He had some convictions.

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He had minor convictions for theft.

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He had convictions for possessing an imitation firearm,

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public order, and threatening behaviour.

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His nickname amongst Liverpool's criminal fraternity was Pancake,

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due to his habit of flipping out.

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He is known across Merseyside and because of the nickname,

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there is this myth around him in terms of...

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..who he was and what he was about.

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In October 2010, Pancake Taylor lived up to his nickname.

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With the help of two others,

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he carried out a vicious revenge attack on a rival he'd fought

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while in prison.

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Taylor and his gang stormed a Liverpool kebab shop,

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armed to the teeth and ready to cause carnage.

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The victim tried to hold the gang off,

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but they forced their way in and chased him upstairs.

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James Taylor is the second male up the stairs.

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And they are going after one individual.

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It's a cowardly attack, three against one.

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They clearly know who he is and what they want to do to him.

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He received laceration wounds.

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He was lucky that he didn't get more serious injuries.

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During the frenzied attack, Taylor's hood fell down, revealing his face.

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This myth around how good these people are as being organised criminals,

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well, actually, it's that arrogance that ultimately led to us identifying him.

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Merseyside Police launched a manhunt for the gang.

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Although they captured one of his accomplices,

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there was no sign of Pancake.

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A number of search warrants were executed.

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He wasn't at his home address.

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He wasn't at his family addresses.

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There was no information, no sightings of him,

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nothing to suggest that he was still in the Merseyside area.

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So all that points towards the fact that he'd gone, he'd left, he'd fled.

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Pancake had seemingly disappeared.

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Merseyside Police made a number of public appeals to try and locate him,

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but it was a chance encounter 1,000 miles away,

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which would provide a vital lead.

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We had a number of Merseyside Police officers who were away on holiday in Spain

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and they thought that they'd possibly sighted him.

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That obviously then prompts me and the investigative team

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to do a number of enquiries with that country.

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Now the hunt for Taylor spanned borders,

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his case became a priority for the National Crime Agency.

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Rob Bennett is the operations manager at the agency's International Crime Bureau.

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In the case of Taylor,

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he was spotted by two Merseyside Police officers in Spain.

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So for them and for law enforcement as a whole,

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it was a valuable spot of Taylor because A, we knew he was abroad,

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but B, we also knew that he was in Spain.

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So it was useful for both Merseyside and obviously us,

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because we then knew where we could target our searches in the first instance.

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But Taylor wasn't hanging around to be found.

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NCA officers began to suspect the fugitive had moved on

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and was now hiding out in Amsterdam.

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There was various pieces of intelligence that suggested that,

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but real corroboration was given to that when we looked at the travel of his girlfriend, of his partner,

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who was travelling over to Amsterdam quite regularly.

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There was some indication he was in other countries,

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so we did look into those links as well,

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but it was the Netherlands that kept on coming through

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as the likely contender as to where he was.

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By now, Pancake Taylor had been at large for three years.

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With all signs showing he was somewhere in Europe's fugitive capital, Amsterdam -

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it was time for the Dutch police to join the hunt.

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But would they be able to track him down after so long on the run?

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In West Yorkshire, large towns and cities like Leeds, Bradford and Wakefield

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attract their fair share of foreign offenders on the run.

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Finding them is a priority for the police.

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The people who try to evade justice in Europe

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by hiding in the communities of West Yorkshire

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are a risk to the people in West Yorkshire.

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Those offenders do not come to West Yorkshire

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to resettle and rehabilitate.

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They come firstly to escape justice in the country where they are wanted

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and then they come to West Yorkshire as an unknown commodity,

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but proficient in committing crime.

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Tonight, police officers Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen are looking for a man

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wanted for relatively minor crimes.

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His name is Tomas Dzurko.

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He was caught stealing several packs of batteries and other goods

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from shops in the Czech Republic on three separate occasions.

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He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, but went on the run instead.

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So this lad we're looking for, he's from the Czech Republic.

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Wanted for three offences of shoplifting.

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The intelligence that links him to this address was from...

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..15th of January 2016.

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They head off to Leeds to see if the man they are after is at home.

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This one with the light, I think.

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Lass looking at us out of the window.

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When they arrive at the property,

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they're met at the door by a woman who is clearly heavily pregnant

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and a man who looks very much like their fugitive.

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-Hello.

-Hello, are you OK?

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-What's your name, pal?

-Tomas.

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-What's your date of birth, please?

-14.03.

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Yep. What year?

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1980.

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OK, Tomas. I can see you've got your missus and child here with you,

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but I've got some bad news for you, I'm afraid.

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There's a warrant been issued for your arrest from the Czech Republic.

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OK? Do you know about this?

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Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

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-Why?

-Why?

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The Czech Republic are saying you've committed three offences

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in 2012, OK? And they'd like to see you extradited

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back to the Czech Republic for them.

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Chill out, all right?

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We're not going to rush you straight out of here.

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We'll let you take care of things that you need to take care of.

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Talk to your missus, OK?

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But you're now under arrest for a European arrest warrant for three offences of shoplifting.

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So you do not have to say anything...

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The arrest is clearly a shock for Tomas Dzurko.

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He thought he'd made a new life for himself,

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his pregnant wife and young son,

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but now the crimes he committed back home in the Czech Republic

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have caught up with him.

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-I know it's...

-I go from prison here?

-I don't know yet.

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You're going to be coming with me tonight to the police station, OK?

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-You're going to be going to London tomorrow.

-London tomorrow?

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To court. And I don't know what is going to happen after that.

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-Hello.

-You, you, you...

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Neither the wanted man, nor his pregnant wife, speak much English,

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so a friend is called to translate.

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-Have you got some ID, please?

-But Dave needs to check who he is, too.

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-My ID?

-Yeah. If I'm going to start talking to you

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and explaining what's happening, I want to know who I'm talking to.

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-What happened?

-I'll tell you in a minute, once I've got your ID, OK?

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With her second child due imminently,

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the shoplifter's wife now faces an uncertain future.

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The time you give me for my wife and my son?

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Five, ten minutes is reasonable, yeah?

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What's happened is Czech have issued a warrant for your arrest, OK?

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-Explain this to him.

-Can I... Speak slowly, yeah?

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The Czech Republic have issued a warrant for his arrest.

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As his friend explains,

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the wanted man starts to realise that he's in real trouble.

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-PAT CASSERLY:

-People are responsible for their actions and there are consequences,

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and the consequence of Tomas's criminality

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and absconding and failing to present himself

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answerable to justice means that at some stage, he gets caught.

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There's never a good time, and on this occasion, yeah,

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quite a tragedy for that family,

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but he brought it upon himself and that's a consequence for Tomas.

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Telephone number 101.

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If tomorrow night you're worried he hasn't come home, OK,

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we'll be able to tell you what's happened.

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Right, we're going to go to the police station now.

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-Are you happy we've got everything?

-Yeah.

-Right, come on then.

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Say your goodbyes, OK?

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Dzurko's taken to the police station in handcuffs,

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leaving his wife at home.

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Just take a seat here, Tomas.

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What started as a petty crime has become a very big problem

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as he faces being sent away from the UK and from his family.

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A dangerous criminal with a history of violence,

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Pancake Taylor, topped the list of Merseyside Police's most wanted

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after a vicious attack in a Liverpool kebab shop,

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which left his victim severely injured.

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But after more than three years on the run,

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police tracked him via Spain to the Netherlands.

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We don't like people who are here with bad intentions.

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And...

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that's why we are very focused on especially the British criminals,

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who like Amsterdam for a safe haven.

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And we catch a lot of people.

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British intelligence sources sent their colleagues in Amsterdam

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an image of Taylor.

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In response, Dutch police deployed officers around the city

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who specialise in facial recognition.

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One of those officers spoke to us.

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We can't reveal his identity because he is still undercover

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and active in the city.

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Once he'd seen a picture of Taylor, the hunt was on.

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This officer spent the next two years scanning every face he came across

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before he finally spotted the British criminal

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he'd committed to memory.

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After more than three years on the run,

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they finally had a confirmed sighting of Pancake Taylor.

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The next problem for the Dutch police was how to safely arrest

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this dangerous and vicious gangster.

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6am in East London and detectives Dave Salmon and Jamie Derby

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are on their way to arrest a Lithuanian man.

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Eligijus Petrikonis was convicted in his home country

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for a serious assault.

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He's also used his mother's financial details to commit a fraud.

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He's been sentenced to two years and three months back in Lithuania.

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He's got to know he's got this prison sentence to serve back in Lithuania,

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so he's going to be anxious to not be caught.

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Although it's still early in the morning,

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London's traffic is starting to build.

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The detectives have a 30-minute drive across the capital

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to get to the wanted man's last-known address

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before he goes out for the day.

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The clock is ticking.

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Finally, they arrive at the property.

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The house they are looking for is in darkness.

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No-one seems to be home.

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But when Jamie rings the doorbell, it's answered quickly.

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-Oh, good morning. Sorry to bother you. Police officers.

-Good morning.

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We've got to speak to the people in there.

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Can I come in and knock on the door?

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-Just going to have to speak to the people who live here.

-All right.

0:21:410:21:43

Where do we start - upstairs? Is there anyone in here?

0:21:460:21:49

He's at work, I think, now.

0:21:490:21:51

What's his name?

0:21:510:21:52

The house is shared by several people,

0:21:530:21:56

and whoever lives downstairs has already left for work.

0:21:560:21:59

Time to search upstairs.

0:22:000:22:02

Hello?

0:22:020:22:03

-Hello, sir.

-Good morning.

0:22:050:22:07

Good morning. What's your name?

0:22:070:22:09

Have you any ID? Passport, anything like that?

0:22:110:22:13

Your date of birth?

0:22:150:22:17

They've found the man they're looking for.

0:22:180:22:21

We've got a warrant here from Lithuania.

0:22:210:22:23

It's to do with theft and an assault.

0:22:230:22:25

I'm arresting you in relation to this European arrest warrant.

0:22:260:22:29

But Jamie spots potential danger.

0:22:290:22:31

Anything you do say may be given in evidence...

0:22:310:22:33

..cos there's a big knife there.

0:22:330:22:36

I'm not going in there. Yeah, go on.

0:22:360:22:38

All right.

0:22:380:22:39

Petrikonis, with his history of violence,

0:22:390:22:42

is kept well away from the serrated blade and other knives and tools spotted in the wardrobe.

0:22:420:22:48

He's handcuffed, just to make sure.

0:22:480:22:50

You go first.

0:22:550:22:57

'When you go into like a small bedsit like that,

0:22:570:23:00

'you've got to be aware of what's around you.'

0:23:000:23:02

Because obviously you don't know who they are,

0:23:030:23:05

they've never come to notice before.

0:23:050:23:07

Obviously, he's wanted for an assault back home in Lithuania,

0:23:070:23:10

so you just never know what's going to happen to you,

0:23:100:23:13

so you've just got to be aware of what's around you.

0:23:130:23:15

It's been a good morning's work.

0:23:150:23:17

A fugitive with a violent past has been safely arrested.

0:23:170:23:21

Petrikonis is now on his way to custody,

0:23:210:23:24

facing an appearance in court and a journey back to prison in Lithuania.

0:23:240:23:28

Back in the Netherlands,

0:23:370:23:39

officers from Amsterdam's serious crime unit

0:23:390:23:42

launched a major surveillance operation

0:23:420:23:44

after a dangerous British criminal was spotted by one of their super-recognisers.

0:23:440:23:49

This undercover officer, who we've agreed to film anonymously,

0:23:530:23:57

identified notorious Liverpool gangster Pancake Taylor

0:23:570:24:01

coming out of a local gym.

0:24:010:24:03

Known as Pancake for his history of flipping,

0:24:140:24:18

this thug was wanted for a long list of violent crimes,

0:24:180:24:22

including this frenzied attack,

0:24:220:24:24

which left his victim with nasty injuries.

0:24:240:24:27

As Taylor was known to be dangerous and possibly armed,

0:24:290:24:33

Dutch police had to patiently plan how they'd carry out the arrest.

0:24:330:24:37

First, they secretly followed him and the people he associated with.

0:24:390:24:43

You want to do other things than just arresting people

0:24:430:24:47

because we know that those people are not only hiding here,

0:24:470:24:51

they're also in business,

0:24:510:24:52

and that's the main problem of those people -

0:24:520:24:56

they're still dealing in drugs, for example.

0:24:560:24:59

Detectives tracked Taylor to an expensive apartment

0:25:000:25:04

in an upmarket area of Amsterdam.

0:25:040:25:06

They also discovered where his closest associates lived

0:25:070:25:11

and planned coordinated strikes with the elite Dutch SWAT team.

0:25:110:25:15

Police patiently watched the house for three days

0:25:250:25:28

until the SWAT team observed Taylor cycling home from the gym

0:25:280:25:33

and decided it was the perfect strike opportunity.

0:25:330:25:36

A dramatic moment the police managed to catch on camera.

0:25:370:25:41

The most sensible place to arrest him was on his bike,

0:25:560:25:59

in broad daylight, where he would have no access to firearms,

0:25:590:26:02

no access to other individuals who could assist him,

0:26:020:26:05

so for them it made perfect sense, really,

0:26:050:26:07

to take him out in such a public way.

0:26:070:26:09

With Taylor under arrest,

0:26:110:26:13

the Amsterdam police called their colleagues in Merseyside

0:26:130:26:16

to let them know the operation had been a success.

0:26:160:26:19

To get that call to say, "Yes, we've identified him, we've got him,

0:26:200:26:24

"he's in custody in Holland", was fantastic, fantastic news.

0:26:240:26:28

As a cop, as a policeman, that's the type of news that you want to hear.

0:26:280:26:32

A search of Taylor's apartment

0:26:350:26:38

and of the homes of three of his associates

0:26:380:26:40

revealed more evidence of their criminal lifestyle.

0:26:400:26:44

We did a house search and we found weapons, two weapons,

0:26:460:26:50

and also drugs - cocaine -

0:26:500:26:53

and a lot of money, and that is typical for those people.

0:26:530:26:58

And when you look to the whole picture, those friends,

0:26:580:27:01

they all had apartments and in total the four of them paid

0:27:010:27:05

about 10,000 euros a month to rent a house,

0:27:050:27:11

and in total we seized about nine firearms.

0:27:110:27:16

With the mountain of evidence against him,

0:27:170:27:20

Taylor was extradited back to the UK to finally face justice.

0:27:200:27:24

Do you know what? Law enforcement across the world,

0:27:260:27:29

we are really, really good at actually finding these people

0:27:290:27:32

and bringing them to justice.

0:27:320:27:34

So there was that real sense of pride of a job well done

0:27:340:27:38

and doing something that the community in Merseyside

0:27:380:27:41

expect us to do.

0:27:410:27:43

And for most of us, that's why we come to work.

0:27:440:27:47

It might take a few months, it might take a few years,

0:27:470:27:50

but eventually we will catch up with you

0:27:500:27:52

and we will bring you back to justice.

0:27:520:27:54

In court, the judge took a dim view of James "Pancake" Taylor's attempts

0:27:590:28:04

to evade justice.

0:28:040:28:05

He was finally sent to prison for nine and a half years.

0:28:050:28:09

At his hearing, shoplifter Tomas Dzurko

0:28:110:28:14

was granted bail by the extradition court.

0:28:140:28:17

He absconded but was then arrested for assaulting a child on a train.

0:28:170:28:22

After pleading guilty, he fled home to the Czech Republic

0:28:220:28:26

before he could be sentenced in the UK.

0:28:260:28:28

He was arrested by Czech police in February 2017.

0:28:280:28:33

And just three weeks after his arrest in East London,

0:28:350:28:38

violent fraudster Eligijus Petrikonis

0:28:380:28:41

was sent back to Lithuania,

0:28:410:28:43

where he'll serve the rest of his jail sentence.

0:28:430:28:45

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