The Albany Gazette - France's most-wanted in custody after extradition from Romania

French convict Mohamed Amra -- on the run since his escape last May in an ambush that left two prison officers dead -- was arrested near a shopping centre in Bucharest on Saturday.

Nicknamed "La Mouche" (The Fly), Amra "arrived at the Paris judicial court shortly after 8:00 pm", prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced in a statement.

He was whisked to the court from Villacoublay airbase outside Paris in a convoy of unmarked cars flanked by police motorcycles, AFP reporters witnessed.

Prosecutors charged the 30-year-old with a slew of crimes including murder, attempted murder, escape and theft as part of an organised gang, as well as criminal conspiracy.

They said he remained silent during questioning by an investigating judge.

- Changed appearance -

Though he changed his appearance and dyed his hair orange while on the run, Amra was identified through facial recognition tools and fingerprints.

Romania had vowed to hand the high-profile convict over to the French authorities, despite him contesting his detention via his lawyers in Bucharest, who claimed he was a "victim of judicial error".

Handcuffed and flanked by Romanian special police forces, Amra was seen being escorted through the lobby of Bucharest airport.

Since the weekend, authorities have detained more than 20 of his suspected accomplices, including in Morocco and Spain.

Amra escaped nine months ago, when gunmen with military-grade assault weapons attacked a prison van transporting him in northern France's Normandy region.

He then vanished without trace.

The brutality of the ambush, which was caught on CCTV, shocked France, and Amra instantly became the country's most-wanted man.

The authorities tasked more than 300 investigators with finding Amra, who has a long history of convictions for violent crimes that started when he was in his early teens.

According to a 2024 judiciary report, he started out with aggravated robberies and progressively "slid towards violence", eventually entering the world of organised crime.

The report found that authorities underestimated for some time just how dangerous he had become.

Amra is suspected of pursuing his drug-related activities from his prison cell, and even of ordering hits from detention.

At the time of his escape last May, Amra was facing one charge for attempted murder and another for participation in a gangland killing in the southern city of Marseille, a hub for drug trafficking and gang violence.

Amra had been living in Romania since February 8, when accomplices installed him in an apartment in suburban Bucharest, according to local police.

Sources close to the investigation told AFP on Monday that it was likely Amra had remained in France until his departure for Romania in early February.

They said he was waiting to undergo cosmetic surgery, after which he intended to flee to Colombia.

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(A.Thompson--TAG)