French Criminal Who Escaped in Fatal Prison Break Recaptured in Romania

Mohamed Amra, nicknamed 'The Fly,' is brought handcuffed by police officers to the Court of Appeals in Bucarest, Romania, on Feb. 23, 2025. Vadim Ghirda/AP

A French criminal, who was freed from a prison break by armed associates in an incident that led to the deaths of two jail guards, has been arrested in the Romanian capital, Bucharest.

Mohamed Amra, nicknamed La Mouche (The Fly), who was detained on Saturday and appeared in court in Bucharest on Sunday, is expected to be extradited to France.

The 30-year-old sported dyed red hair—possibly intended to disguise his identity—and grinned at onlookers as he was escorted by armed police to and from the courthouse.

On May 10, 2024, two guards—Fabrice Moello, 52, and Arnaud Garcia, 34—were killed when armed men attacked a prison convoy as it slowed down at a highway tollbooth in Incarville, outside Rouen.

Amra was being taken from court to prison after being convicted of a burglary in Evreux when the incident, which made global headlines, took place.

He vanished, along with his accomplices, and Interpol issued a red notice for his arrest.

After a nine-month manhunt, Amra and 10 other alleged members of his entourage were tracked down to Bucharest, where they were detained on Saturday.

On Sunday, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the other people arrested in Bucharest were suspected of participating in the preparation and execution of his escape and helping him hide once he was on the run.

Beccuau said Amra had connections with one of Marseille’s organized crime gangs, and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.

She said at the time he escaped he was also under investigation for an attempted murder and a kidnapping which resulted in death.

Facial Recognition Used

Beccuau said Amra was arrested near a shopping center in Bucharest and she said, ″Despite the change of his hair color, the identification of the suspect was confirmed using facial recognition and fingerprint comparison.”

French President Emmanuel Macron called Amra’s capture a ‘’formidable success’' and France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X on Saturday: “I congratulate all the forces that made possible the arrest of Mohamed Amra in Romania today. I warmly thank Romania for its decisive cooperation.”

On Sunday night, Shannon Seban, president of Macron’s Renaissance Party in the department of Seine-Saint-Denis in suburban Paris, posted on X, “The arrest of Mohamed Amra in Romania after months on the run proves the effectiveness of European cooperation.”

“A huge relief for the families of Fabrice Moello and Arnaud Garcia, the prison officers killed during the escape of this drug trafficker in May 2024. Congratulations to the investigators and magistrates involved,” she added.

Seban wrote: “It is not up to criminals to defy the republic. It is up to the republic to defy the criminals.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Amra’s criminal record dated back to the age of 11.

They said he had a number of aliases, including “Yanis,” “Momo,” and “Schtroumpf (Smurf).”

Beccuau said it would be up to the Romanian judicial authorities to decide whether to hand Amra over to France.

An undated image of Mohamed Amra—who escaped from a prison van in France on May 14, 2024 and was recaptured in Romania on Feb. 22, 2025. Interpol via AP

Last month a former Paris prosecutor François Molins said narcotrafficking in France had become “perhaps more significant than terrorism.”

In Nov. 2024 Retailleau said the situation was so serious that drug gang violence in small towns could lead to “narco-enclaves” emerging.

He compared the situation to the control drug cartels have in communities in Mexico.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.