Dramatic footage shows moment one of Europe's most wanted fugitives is arrested

Footage shows the man, who has been named as Josip Mihajlovic (27) by Croatian media, detained by three plainclothes police officers as he looks on his phone while waiting for a lift in a Madrid hotel lobby.

Mihajlovic is seen being handcuffed as he lies on his stomach on the floor.

He is then lifted to his feet before the officers escort him out of the hotel lobby.

The arrest reportedly took place on Monday, February 20 at the unnamed hotel in the Spanish capital.

The fugitive, who is from Zagreb, is wanted for serious crimes in Croatia where he reportedly faces life imprisonment.

In Dubrovnik in 2019 he shot a taxi driver several times, although the victim survived with serious injuries. Mihajlovic was also involved in a brawl at a club where he knocked out a person's teeth.

According to local media, the police who had been “on his heels since Christmas” were able to track him down in Ibiza.

He travelled to Madrid via Barcelona, ​​where he planned to meet his girlfriend from Colombia. He was arrested in the lobby of the hotel where the meeting was to take place.

A statement from the Spanish National Police stated: "In an operation within the framework of the ENFAST network, the National Police detains in Madrid a fugitive wanted by the Croatian authorities for violent crimes.

"The arrested man had a legal claim issued for events that occurred in 2019, where he was involved in a fight in which he caused serious injuries to his victim.

"The fugitive was included in Europol's European Most Wanted list, and he was arrested in a central Madrid hotel when he went to meet his partner."

The Spanish authorities added: "Agents of the National Police, within the framework of the ENFAST network - European Network of Fugitive Search Teams- have arrested a fugitive of Croatian origin with a very violent profile in Madrid.

“Wanted by the authorities of his country, he was involved in serious crimes that caused great social alarm in the Baltic country and for which he faces life imprisonment.

“The detainee was claimed for events dating back to mid-2019, when he was in a disco in Croatia and was involved in a brawl in which he brutally beat another person who suffered fractures and lost teeth."

The authorities said that the fugitive has an "extensive criminal history", adding: "This criminal action joins the authorship of other serious criminal acts for which he was being investigated and for which he had even already gone to prison.

“In addition, a month before these events, he had tried to assassinate another man in his country of origin with a firearm.

"The fugitive was on Europol's European Most Wanted list and his location was dealt with within the framework of international police collaboration and cooperation through the ENFAST network for the search for fugitives.

"The investigations of the agents centred the fugitive in the east of our country, determining that he had spent a large part of last Christmas on the island of Ibiza and from where he later moved to Barcelona.

"The National Police investigators found out that he had met his partner in a central Madrid hotel on 20th February, taking advantage of the surprise factor and taking extreme security measures to arrest the fugitive.

"Among his belongings, falsified documentation was found with which he intended to evade police actions and avoid being discovered."