Sex trafficking suspect detained in UK after years on run

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has arrested a Romanian fugitive who was wanted in relation to sex trafficking offences in the UK.

Manix Lacatusu, 46, was arrested by expert police of the NCA National Extradition Unit (NEU) on Wednesday, January 14, in the Shirley Road, Southampton. Romanian authorities want him on sexual exploitation and trafficking of two girls, with an attempt to take one of the victims to Italy in 2015.

According to Romanian prosecutors, Lacatusu never showed up in court to stand trial and instead he was convicted in absentia. On May 2024, a judge in Gorj County convicted him to 10 years in prison.

The joint investigations conducted by the NCA and law enforcement agencies of Romania disclosed that Lacatusu had spent some years living in the UK under various name trying to escape detection.

By tracking him to Southampton, NEU detectives were able to establish that he was once living in the Midlands and North West of England.