Wanted convicted Portuguese fugitive arrested in KZN

Interpol’s National Crime Bureau (NCB) in Pretoria has arrested a convicted fraudster wanted by the Portuguese Government.

He was arrested in Umhlanga Rocks, north of Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.

In a statement, spokesperson for the South African Police Service (Saps) Brigadier Vish Naidoo said Joao Manuel de Oliveira Rendeiro is a Portuguese national who escaped from police custody in his home country after being convicted on a multi-million dollar fraud case and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment before he escaped.

“On 24th November 2021. The Head of the Judicial Police of Portugal, Luis Neves brought this matter to the attention of [the] National Commissioner of the SAPS, General Khehla John Sitole during a bilateral meeting at the 89th Interpol General Assembly in Istanbul, Turkey.

“General Sitole committed to tracking and tracing the fugitive after it emerged that he may be hiding in South Africa,” Naidoo said.

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NCB members acted on an Interpol Red Notice found the fugitive in a location in Umhlanga Rocks where he was arrested at 7am on Saturday morning.

De Oliveira Rendeiro will appear at the Durban Magistrates Court on Monday, 13 December as part of his extradition process.

The arrested of de Oliveira Rendeiro’s was welcomed by the Portuguese authorities and sent words of gratitude and praise to General Sithole and the SAPS team for speedily arresting him.

In a bizarre case in September, Venezuela’s former military intelligence chief, was in Madrid, Spain after nearly two years on the run, underwent plastic surgery and used disguises to avoid being caught, Spanish police said.

Officers arrested General Hugo Armando Carvajal, who served as intelligence chief under the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and is wanted in the United States on drug charges, at a Madrid apartment.