{"id":23865,"date":"2026-05-15T10:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23865\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:54:08","slug":"drug-smuggler-arrested-in-spain-hours-after-being-named-most-wanted-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/23865\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug smuggler arrested in Spain hours after being named ‘most wanted’ | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

An on-the-run drug smuggler and money launderer has been arrested on the Costa del Sol just hours after being named as one of Britain\u2019s 12 most wanted men. Simon Dutton, 49, was being sought for recall to his prison sentence for organising large-scale importation of cocaine and money laundering. One of Dutton\u2019s deadly hauls was valued at \u00a31.5m. Announcing their \u201cdirty dozen<\/a>\u201d list of fugitives the National Crime Agency told how he was believed to be hiding out in Spain and had distinctive features including \u2018Rachel\u2019 tattooed on his left arm plus scars on his chin, left hand and right leg.<\/p>\n

Within hours of the appeal launch on Thursday morning Spanish police swooped to arrest Dutton in La Nucia, near Benidorm and he was taken into custody from where he is now expected to be extradited back to the UK.<\/p>\n

Dutton, originally from Bolton, was arrested as part of a wider operation attempting to trace 12 most wanted suspects on what was once known as the Costa del Crime. Others on the list include former UK soap star<\/a> who masterminded a \u00a313.6million fraud operation that conned thousands of would-be models has been named as one of Britain\u2019s 12 most wanted men. Philip Foster, 49, who played Christian Wright in former Channel 4 drama Brookside, ran a network of fake modelling agencies for more than eight years. Foster is believed to be on the run in Spain, after given an eight-and-a-half-year prison sentence at Sheffield Crown Court last year for conspiracy to defraud.<\/p>\n

But in the 20 years since Operation Captura started, there have been 11 public appeals naming a range of criminals, and 98 of 111 offenders and suspects have been caught.<\/p>\n

NCA deputy director Rick Jones said criminals hope to blend in among British ex-pats and often continue offending while living in Spain.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThey will generally integrate themselves into these communities, which are populated by many, many thousands of British people who are perhaps enjoying their retirement or running businesses there.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminals will integrate themselves and hide among society, and then abuse that trust of those communities and offend against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s why we are so determined to leave no stone unturned and no safe place for them to do that and offend against the Spanish communities and our own back here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An on-the-run drug smuggler and money launderer has been arrested on the Costa del Sol just hours after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1966,12666,12347,12474,17],"class_list":["post-23865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-costa-del-sol","tag-extradition","tag-national-crime-agency","tag-simon-dutton","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}