A notorious ‘drug kingpin’ known as ‘The Fly’ has been arrested in Romania after staging a deadly escape killing two guards and leaving others seriously injured.
Two guards were shot dead after masked gunmen ambushed a prison convoy nine months ago in a bid to free the fugitive French prisoner, Mohamed Amra, nicknamed La Mouche (The Fly).
The terrifying attack, at a motorway toll station in north-west France, sparked a huge manhunt which saw several hundred police, including France’s elite anti-terror unit, search for the suspected gang boss and his accomplices.
Dramatic footage showed the chilling moment the prison van was rammed by a black SUV before gunmen, in hoods and balaclavas, who appeared and opened fire with military-grade weapons.
The gunmen fled with prisoner Amra, who also goes by aliases such as Yanis, Momo and Schtroumpf (The Smurf). During the hunt to locate the assailants, they were described as ‘armed and very dangerous’.
Two children were left without a father, whilst another woman, who was five months pregnant, was left widowed after the two guards were gunned down in broad daylight.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal called the ambush ‘despicable’ and an attack on the nation and vowed to hunt down the gang.
Now the French government has confirmed that alleged drug kingpin Amra has been arrested in Romania following the daylight attack.
Motorious ‘drug kingpin’, Mohamed Amra, known as ‘The Fly’ has been arrested in Romania after staging a deadly escape killing two guards and leaving others seriously injured
Footage shows the moment a car rammed into a French police vehicle at the Incarville tollbooth, Normandy on May 13, 2024
Pictured is the black SUV shortly after it rammed into the prison convoy
In a post on X, French interior minister Bruno Retailleau thanked ‘all the forces who permitted the arrest of Mohamed Amra in Romania today’.
The atrocity took place in daylight on May 14 last year, as the prison convoy was two-thirds of the way through a 34-mile journey from Rouen in Normandy, transporting Amra back to jail in the town of Évreux after a court hearing.
Amra, who allegedly ordered a gangland execution two years ago, had appeared before an investigating magistrate in the morning.
As the convoy paused at Incarville tollbooth on the A154 motorway near Val-de-Reuil, the SUV drove into the lead van, effectively blocking it.
Masked men in black emerged from two other cars, brandishing weapons, believed to be pump action rifles and automatic machine guns.
They opened fire with armed officers inside the prison vans firing back. One of the attackers is believed to have been injured in the shoot-out.
The coordinated attack was over in five minutes, having been played out in front of motorists, including a coach whose passengers took mobile phone videos.
Amra and the gang escaped in two cars, an Audi A5 and a BMW 5 series, which were later found abandoned and burnt out.
A graphic detailing how the deadly attack unfolded at a toll station in north-west France
Amra, nicknamed ‘La Mouche’ (The Fly), was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy before the bloodbath unfolded
Footage also shows gunmen at the scene, filmed from a passing coach, where two guards were shot dead
French authorities were seen towing away a burnt-out vehicle belived to have been used in the inmate’s escape on May 14
Forensic officer at work at the site of a ramming attack which took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France last year
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said that Amra had connections with Marseille’s organised crime syndicates and was suspected of heading a drug trafficking network.
He has also reportedly been linked to organised crime and drug trafficking as well as to kidnapping and murder.
Amra was convicted of a series of aggravated thefts last week and given an 18-month sentence after using a gun to rob supermarkets in Évreux in 2019.
He has a total of 13 convictions and was also being held in connection with an attempted murder in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, near Rouen, and the execution of a man in Marseille in June 2022.
Amra is nicknamed ‘The Fly’ because of his multiple convictions and his involvement in a range of crimes, with a source saying: ‘He’s everywhere, like an annoying fly.’
French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said: ‘These are people for whom life counts for nothing.’
French prison guards wear bullet proof vests and have handguns when transporting prisoners.
They do not have to stop or pay at toll stations but they are often slowed by traffic, making them vulnerable to attacks.
