Flash arrest

Targeted investigators arrest prisoner in 90 minutes

From the USA to South America to Mauritius and Thailand. The Federal Criminal Police Office's target investigators operate worldwide - their raids make the headlines.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV, stock.adobe.com, Krone-Archiv, Quelle: BK)

A prisoner who escaped from a Dutch prison was only able to enjoy his regained freedom for a short time. Detectives from the Federal Criminal Police Office caught the multiple offender in the area of Vienna-Schwechat Airport. Of course, it doesn't always happen that quickly ...

Their grim faces hang like trophies on the bare office wall. They are the profiles of serious criminals. Of murderers, robbers, fraudsters. They have all caused people a lot of suffering - and made headlines in the media. Whoever hangs here is a heavy boy. Or a heavy girl. In total, there are 311 grimaces - 286 men and 25 women who were unable to escape the long arm of the authorities.

"A target is not arrested from behind a desk," explains an experienced target investigator during the "Krone" on-site inspection at the Federal Criminal Police Office. His anonymity must be guaranteed, as must that of his colleagues. In fact, the top criminals get around quite a bit. Mexico, Venezuela, Thailand, the USA, Iraq - they have already had their handcuffs click around the globe. Always in cooperation with the local police. "As a target investigator, you also have to be a bit of a diplomat," explains Andreas Holzer, Director of the Federal Criminal Police Office. Because good cooperation with foreign authorities requires one thing above all: trust.

The perpetrators need to know that they can't feel safe anywhere. We also owe that to the victims.

Andreas Holzer, Direktor des Bundeskriminalamtes

Since it was founded in 2003, the target investigation unit has arrested 152 people in Europe and 37 in other countries. These include prominent names such as Olympic champion Peter Seisenbacher, the producer of the Ibiza video Julian Hessenthaler, but also one of the murderers in the "Leonie" case and the Serbian robbery murderer who had a Viennese jeweler on his conscience. In return, the officers arrested 122 perpetrators for foreign authorities in Austria on the basis of international arrest warrants. "The perpetrators must know that they can't be safe anywhere," says Holzer.

Peter Seisenbacher in court

(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

Compared to such calibers, the escaped prisoner from the Netherlands is just a small fish. But he was caught in no time at all: Just 90 minutes passed between alerting the Dutch authorities and his arrest at Vienna-Schwechat Airport. The target investigators had located the man in a suburban train and were able to arrest him without resistance.

Julian Hessenthaler

(Bild: AFP or licensors)

Clear-up rate almost 100 percent
A case from 2007 shows that things don't always happen so quickly: a man suspected of child abuse went into hiding in Nigeria for three decades (!) before detectives were able to track him down and arrest him. "No crime must go unpunished" is the credo. In fact, the clearance rate is almost 100 percent. The target investigators currently only have two open cases: the notorious prostitute murderer Tibor Foco (who has been wanted since 1997) and Martin Josef Schabel, alias "Mr. Blow" - the 51-year-old is said to be a large-scale drug dealer via the darknet marketplaces. His whereabouts are unknown. Still ...