Interpol casts a Web net to catch fugitives

Interpol has been leading an international operation since May aimed at tracking down 450 particularly dangerous fugitives, and has arrested 39 people as a result, including former Colombian model Angie Sanclemente Valencia, wanted by Argentina for drug trafficking.

However, Interpol has failed to find a trace of 26 of the suspects, wanted for murder, human trafficking or child sex abuse. So on Monday, Interpol launched an appeal to the public to report any sign of the 26, releasing their photos and biographical information on its website.

It is the first time Interpol has sought the public's help to find so many suspects. The global crime-fighting body, which links police forces from 188 countries, normally works behind the scenes, but has had success with public appeals to find a few individual suspected pedophiles in the past.

Interpol is hoping that social networking sites prove a fruitful tool for the 26 fugitives on its new public list.

Many of the fugitives have been missing for years, "and when they first went missing there wasn't much on the Internet," Martin Cox, coordinator of the appeal, said.

Cox cited the case of US citizen Christopher Ward Deininger, 25. As a teenager, Deininger committed sexual assaults on several children he was babysitting, then pleaded guilty and was ordered to 12 years of probation, according to a wanted notice from the US Department of Justice. After four years he fled the facility where he had been ordered to stay; Kazinform cites The Arab News.

See www.arabnews.com for full version