ENFAST is a police cooperation network dedicated to searching for the most dangerous criminals, with the Polish Police as an active participant. Since the launch of the Europe’s Most Wanted website and annual campaigns in 2016, 110 wanted individuals have been arrested, 41 of them directly as a result of information originating from the website.

There are currently 54 wanted criminals published on the website, including three from Poland—with the notorious Jacek Jaworek (pictured in the header) at the top of the list. All the criminals sought in the latest campaign are wanted on the basis of EAWs (European Arrest Warrants) for murders, drug trafficking or human trafficking.

The “Hiding in Plain Sight” campaign, which began in December 2021, draws attention with three intriguing video spots. Their protagonists are a meat seller holding a knife, a pharmacist in a pharmacy and a taxi driver carrying a woman. Ordinary, inconspicuous people whom we often fail to notice. The stories presented are not based on real events, but the touch of drama added to them attracts attention. It makes people think and encourages vigilance.

“Wanted criminals often change not only their appearance and personal details, but also lead a completely different, normal life. They start new families, become model citizens and get along with their neighbours,” says the coordinator of the ENFAST Contact Point at the Searches and Identification Department of the Criminal Bureau of the Police Headquarters.

She adds:

The case that has stayed with me the most dates back to 1985. At that time, a young woman was raped and murdered in Poland, and the young Polish suspect simply vanished. For 32 years! The case seemed hopeless, but… thanks to actions by the Italian police targeting document forgers, it emerged that a quiet Italian resident with no legal problems, a family and a settled life near Modena might actually be someone else. He was the wanted Pole, and he had been living an excellent life. He had created an entirely different identity, and his wife had not the slightest idea about her husband’s dark past and true nature. This case was exceptional because the man had created a second life for himself and lived that way for several decades, while nobody around him knew who he really was or what he had done.

Media campaigns conducted by ENFAST produce results. The “star” of the previous campaign, focused on sex offenders, was Dariusz Z., who fled Poland to the other side of the world. Even that proved insufficient.

“Thanks to information obtained during the campaign, we were gradually able to locate this man on one of the small islands in the Philippines, where he ran a guesthouse. Nobody around him suspected that in his previous life in Europe he had committed paedophilic offences. We took extraordinary measures to arrest him and transport him to the capital, Manila. For procedural reasons, he is still currently being held in a Philippine prison,” says the coordinator.

The “shadow hunters”—as the officers of Division I of Board III of the Central Police Investigation Bureau are known—have been depriving wanted criminals of peaceful sleep and freedom for ten years. “Some of them, while in hiding, are able to sever all their former contacts and ties. For four years, nobody knew anything about Andrzej K. from the criminal group from Ostrów Mazowiecka. He was found in Warsaw, where he worked for a construction company insulating buildings. When we arrested him, he asked us to notify his mother. The woman was genuinely delighted: ‘Oh Jesus, he’s alive!’ A Łódź football hooligan who distributed drugs among supporters was hiding in a rented flat in his home city. Even his wife did not know the address. When we arrested him, she came to secure the premises and gave him a dressing-down: ‘Even I didn’t know where you lived, and the Police found you!’” recounts a CBŚP officer.

Large cities provide anonymity. Entire housing estates are built there, with many flats intended for rent. Practically nobody knows their neighbours, who they are or speaks to them. But tenants are constantly changing even in old buildings, and permanent residents often have no idea who lives behind the wall.

“A man from Warsaw whom we were looking for was hiding with his girlfriend in Wrocław. He even said ‘good morning’ to the neighbours. They were very surprised later when, fleeing from us, he jumped across the balconies,” says a CBŚP officer.

A man who smuggled drugs into Poland was hiding in southern Spain. His weak point could have been his family, especially his children, because children usually cannot lie. But not his. They had been trained to tell everyone that they had no contact with their father. “Such people are genuinely difficult to catch. A shadow man, elusive,” says the police officer who caught him. “But every one of them makes a mistake eventually, and then we have them.

Many criminals from Poland try to hide in Spain. They usually pass themselves off as businessmen and lead affluent lives, although in reality they continue doing what they did before.

Officers: “Criminals willingly invest in property. Bogdan S. was involved in large-scale fraud, and invested the money in agritourism. He had a large property in the Opole region, and guests saw him as an older man who helped his son and daughter-in-law run the business. When we arrested him, he was mowing the grass.

Luigi B., a Camorra mafioso wanted for three years for participation in an organised criminal group, baked pizzas in Nowy Targ. Apparently they were even tasty, and one of them, made according to his recipe, is called “Luigi”. Another Italian, Antonio C., sentenced by a court in Naples to 10 years and 10 months in prison for international drug trafficking and participation in the creation of the mafia structure of the “Contini” clan, hid in Podkarpacie for six years. He worked as a sales representative and lived the life of a model family man.

They are among us

The creator of the “grandparent scam”, Arkadiusz Ł., known as Hoss, has been arrested several times. When he was hiding, he transformed himself into another person. In one incarnation, he walked the streets wearing a helmet and disguised as a worker, although the flat he rented in Żoliborz had golden chandeliers. Sebastian W., who sold large quantities of drugs in the capital, was extremely vigilant, but also took care of his physical fitness. He did not work out in some basement, but in a hotel gym in central Warsaw. Nerve? No, rather calculation.

“In places like these, where there are no regular customers, people also become anonymous,” says a police “shadow hunter”. “We arrested another wanted man in a large chain store selling sports equipment.

Wanted criminals do everything they can not to attract attention or be recognised. “These people very often hide for many years, so they have to create a new image for themselves, change their appearance and identity. Adapt to their surroundings. These people are among us,” says the ENFAST coordinator. “And that is precisely what our ‘Hiding in Plain Sight’ campaign draws attention to.