Spanish authorities are releasing new details, as well as a video, related to the arrest of Canada’s most wanted fugitive last week.
All Boivin, 36, was arrested last Friday in Marbella, a city on Spain’s southern coast, after spending more than three years on the run from Quebec police.
Boivin, who is originally from Quebec’s Saguenay region, is wanted for several alleged crimes, such as drug trafficking, organized crime, aggravated assault, kidnapping, false imprisonment, breaking and entering, weapons trafficking, and has ties to conflicts between motorcycle gangs in Quebec in 2022.
On Thursday, Spain’s Ministerio del Interior, which is responsible for the country’s national police force, issued a news release celebrating the arrest of a Canadian fugitive and released a video of him in handcuffs.
The 21-second video shows the suspect with his hands behind his back as he’s being escorted by two masked police officers into a police vehicle.
The release did not name the suspect, but a spokesperson for Spain’s national police confirmed to CTV News that the man in the video is Boivin.
The ministry also shed some light on how he evaded the authorities for so long.
According to Spanish authorities, he was staying in a “luxury home” at an “upscale” residential complex in Marbella, a popular resort destination, and rarely left the building to avoid being spotted. He also undertook several security measures and extended those measures to his associates.
The Ministerio del Interior also says Boivin had started removing his tattoos “to make identification more difficult.”
Boivin has a number of tattoos on his body, including some on both of his hands and a hard-to-miss one on the right side of his neck that says “Gucci.”
Police spent 10 months trying to find his hideout in Marbella before launching a surveillance operation near his home. Then, on one of the “rare” occasions when he left the residence, he was positively identified by police as he got into a vehicle and was arrested.
The ministry says the operation in Spain was carried out in collaboration with European Network of Fugitive Active Search Teams (ENFAST), a unit made up of highly-trained police officers specializing in locating and arresting fugitives.
Boivin had been on the run since Feb. 15, 2023. He was wanted by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), which has also accused him of gangsterism, aggravated assault and arms trafficking. His arrest last week was hailed by the SQ as a major victory in the fight against organized crime.
Bryan Fuentes Gramajo was at the top of the Bolo program’s most wanted fugitives in Canada, but he was arrested in Montreal last March. Boivin, who was number two on the list, then became the most wanted fugitive after Fuentes Gramajo was captured.
