Fugitives Episode Rating Graph

In Redditch, Worcestershire, it takes determined policing to track down an elusive Polish drug dealer who has already been sentenced to a total of 45 years behind bars back home. In the Netherlands, Amsterdam's Serious and Organised Crime team spend months tracking down two Liverpool gangsters who ran a campaign of terror from a prison cell. Their time on the run abroad comes to an end because their own mobile phones give them away. In West Yorkshire the search for a wanted man takes on an unexpected twist as PCs Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen discover a huge cannabis farm at an address linked to a fugitive. And the National Crime Agency launch an appeal in the Netherlands to help them track down some of the UK's most wanted.

For the past month officers Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen have been searching for a Polish man convicted of a series of increasingly violent robberies. The trail eventually leads them to a house which appears deserted - where a thorough search leads to an unexpected discovery. One shady character who thought he could escape to the sunshine was Manchester-born con-artist Tony Murphy. A fraudster with a taste for exotic and expensive foreign trips, Murphy got his hands on hundreds of thousands of pounds of cash and assets by lying through his teeth. He fled the UK in October 2012 to avoid a prison sentence, but when he opted for a luxury life in Spain, it was his daily routine that gave him away. In the West Midlands, Sergeant Ian Hands is searching for a wanted man, convicted of seven fraud offences in Poland back in 2005. An early morning call brings results.

In Spain, Inspector Olga Lizana from the Spanish National Police's Extradition team is searching for fugitive Andrew Moran, who has been on the run for seven years. He escaped from a British courtroom, seven weeks into a trial for violent robbery. In Coventry, officers from West Midlands Police stage a dawn raid. They're searching for a Polish man who has already served six years in prison for murder. Now the Home Office wants him out of the UK. In London, the Extradition Unit at the Metropolitan Police are on a week-long operation. Today's target is a man convicted of producing and selling counterfeit CDs and DVDs back home in Poland. It's only a quarter to six in the morning, but DS Pete Rance and his team are already making an arrest.

It's double trouble for officers Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen, as they go searching for two wanted men in one small West Yorkshire town. The first target is a Polish man wanted for crimes he committed home in Poland fifteen years ago, whilst the second is a Hungarian man convicted of a series of burglaries. In London, a helpful suspect introduces detectives to technology to overcome their language barrier. The man they've arrested only speaks Romanian, but on their way to custody he finds a way of making himself understood. And unlucky drugs courier Scott Coleman, who was first arrested after trying to sell drugs to an undercover policeman, is arrested by Dutch police after more than a decade on the run in Spain and the Netherlands.

In London, Detective Sergeant Pete Rance from the Metropolitan Police's Extradition Unit leads a team serving European arrest warrants in the capital. Top of his list today is a man accused of a vicious murder back in Poland. Drug dealer Glen Madden fled the UK to hide on Amsterdam's busy streets. His photograph was circulated to a team of super-spotters in the Dutch capital. Within months the covert detectives, with a heightened ability to recognise faces, tracked him down. In Keighley, PC Tom Allen is determined to find a man accused of stealing and killing pigs back home in Hungary. And solving crime with social media - how the victim of one sexual predator used Facebook to track him down.

The Metropolitan Police's extradition team stage a double dawn raid as they search for two brothers on the run from the USA. Charged with the cultivation and supply of almost four kilograms of illegal hallucinogenic mushrooms back in 2009, the brothers fled the US while awaiting trial. West Yorkshire is home to one of the busiest extradition units in the UK. PCs Dave Lockwood and Tom Allen are out looking for a Polish man who is accused of theft and fraud. Every year the National Crime Agency and Crimestoppers run Operation Captura. Giant screens displaying wanted faces are displayed in popular tourist resorts in Spain. One of the operation's biggest success stories was the arrest of paedophile Michael McCartney, hours after his face was displayed on billboards and TV in Alicante.

Robert Knight was part of an organised gang of smugglers based in Birmingham. Back in early 2008, West Midlands Police were on their trail. But once they had seized a shipment of cocaine worth £300,000 at Heathrow, Knight went on the run. Intelligence from the National Crime Agency led to his arrest in a Spanish bar by Spain's leading fugitive hunter, Detective Olga Lizana. In east London, the Metropolitan Police's extradition team are on the hunt for a man with a history of domestic violence. And in Worcestershire, PCs Danny Evans and Karl Lacey have a long list of fugitives to find. Top of the list is a 33-year-old drug dealer who has already been sentenced to two years in prison back in Poland.

Noel Cunningham tried to steal more than a million pounds from a cash-in-transit van in Brixton, south London, over a decade ago. Six years after a violent escape, intelligence from the UK's National Crime Agency linked the armed robber to the Netherlands. In Amstelveen, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, a local policeman was sent the fugitive's mugshot. Thirty minutes later he spotted the fugitive in a bar and called for back-up. In London, DS Pete Rance and his team are faced with a challenge. A Turkish man convicted of death by dangerous driving should be going home. He is due to board a plane at Heathrow, but he is refusing to leave his flat. Will the officers manage to get him extradited?

The Metropolitan Police try to identify a suspect accused of killing a man and shooting a policeman in Brazil back in November 1994. Detective Sergeant Pete Rance is working on another unusual case. The man he is looking for is wanted in connection with one of the most notorious match-fixing scandals in the history of cricket. And Martin Evans's incredible scam convinced dozens of people to invest in a dodgy ostrich farm. After going on the run to avoid prison, Evans reinvented himself as an international drug smuggler and is believed to have made more than £37 million. His flight from justice took him to Cyprus and South Africa, where he was eventually arrested. Evans was finally jailed for 21 years for fraud and drug trafficking. At a Johannesburg court, a judge ordered his extradition.