Date Published: 20/07/2022
ARCHIVED - British fugitive arrested in Malaga for murder and drug trafficking fights extradition to UK
The 30-year-old Liverpool man was arrested in the Costa del Sol for allegedly murdering a teenager in 2015
David Ungi, a British fugitive arrested in the town of Coín in Malaga this May after seven years on the run, has this week refused to be extradited to the UK, claiming that he has lived in Spain since 2018 and that he wants to remain close to his family and young daughter.
Also known by the aliases David Riccio and Junior, 30-year-old Ungi from Liverpool was on the Spanish National Crime Agency’s most wanted fugitives list before he was finally nabbed by police entering a gym with two pals on May 5.
The suspect was wanted in connection to the 2015 murder of teenager Vinny Waddington in Merseyside, in addition to charges of heroin trafficking. Ungi fled to Spain right after the fatal shooting.
At the time of his arrest, the British Crime Agency described Ungi as a “very dangerous person,” adding that his capture was “very good news for communities both in Liverpool and Spain.”
When he was apprehended in Coín, several firearms and 15 kilograms of cocaine were seized in the house where the group lived.
The fugitive attended his hearing via videoconference on Tuesday July 19 and argued against his extradition to the UK on the grounds that Spain is now his home and also where his family connections reside.
The British authorities threw another spanner in the works, only requesting that Ungi be returned home to face the drug trafficking charges, making no mention of a murder charge.
His defence lawyers jumped on this, claiming it is not clear why the British authorities are requesting his extradition, given that the European arrest warrant alluded to the possible crime of murder and against public health, but later only the second crime was highlighted.
“Now we don’t know if they want him for those two crimes or for the first or the second,” the lawyer pointed out.
Image: National Crime Agency
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