A Hungarian suspected drug trafficker on Europe’s most wanted fugitive list was taken into custody in Mexico on Saturday, according to the Latin American country’s public security chief.
Janos Balla, also known as Daniel Takacs, was apprehended in the beach resort city of Cancun on the Yucatan peninsula, according to Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch’s post on X. The suspect is one of Europe’s top ten most wanted.
Related posts
Interpol issued a red notice for Balla, and Europol issued a formal arrest order, according to a statement from his ministry.
According to Europol, the 48-year-old Hungarian native is accused of directing a criminal organization that specialized in cocaine and ecstasy trafficking from at least mid-2014 until April 2015.
Mexican officials released photos showing Balla, who is dressed in a palm tree shirt and has a scanty beard, being accompanied by police and security forces.
In a joint statement, state and federal officials said Balla was apprehended as a result of information supplied by Hungarian security institutions, as well as intelligence and investigation. They claimed he was handed up to Mexico’s immigration office “to determine his immigration status and continue his controlled deportation process to Europe.”
It was not immediately known whether Balla had legal representation.
Ballo’s capture is the most high-profile arrest of a fugitive in Mexico in recent weeks.
In March, Mexican authorities apprehended a man wanted in Colombia and Ecuador for the murder of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio in Quito in 2023.
Also last month, a US fugitive was apprehended in Mexico barely over an hour after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, marking the list’s fastest arrest in history.
