This week a suspected cocaine trafficking kingpin was finally extradited to the UK from Dubai more than a year since he was arrested.
Prior to his capture by the United Arab Emirates authorities in April 2021, Michael Paul Moogan, from Croxteth, had been on the run for eight years after being named as wanted following a raid on a Cafe in Rotterdam in October 2013. But detectives and prosecutors across the UK are still awaiting the return of several other suspects for questioning over a series of despicable crimes.
Perhaps the highest profile Liverpool suspect currently awaiting extradition to the UK is David Ungi Jnr. The now-30-year-old was picked up by police in the town of Coin in Malaga, Spain, on May 6 this year. Spanish officers arrested Ungi in a gym within a shopping centre complex as part of a join operation involving Spanish police, the British National Crime Agency (NCA) and Merseyside Police.
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Ungi had managed to evade capture for seven years after the murder of Garston teenager Vinny Waddington on July 15, 2015. Vinny, 18, was the pillion passenger on a motorbike which was rammed by an Audi A3 car on Banks Road, before a single shotgun blast was fired from the passenger side window by one of three men inside the vehicle.
Vinny was struck in the chest, and despite managing to run a short distance and jump a fence, he quickly collapsed and died of catastrophic injuries. The rider of the bike, Francis Humphries, was also struck but his injuries were not life-threatening.
Two men, Luke Kendrick and Ryan Bate, were convicted of murder at Liverpool Crown Court and jailed for life in 2016. But during the trial, the jury were told detectives suspected Ungi had been the third man in the Audi.
However the NCA revealed he had boarded a ferry in Dover within 24 hours of the attack and fled to the continent. Ungi, formerly of Melbreck Road in Allerton, remains in Spanish custody.
The ECHO understands it may be some time before extradition proceedings can begin.
Another man wanted for questioning over a murder on the streets of Liverpool is Jason Curry. The Toxteth native is sought by detectives in relation to the shooting of 18-year-old Yusuf Sonko on June 2, 2017.
Yusuf was standing with a group of friends in Tagus Street, off Lodge Lane, at around 8.30pm when he was struck in the head by a bullet fired by one of two men on bikes.
Despite a number of arrests, no-one has yet been charged with Yusuf's killing, even after a £20,000 award for information was offered. The shooting caused devastation in L8 and Yusuf's grief-stricken parents, Khadija and Papice Sonko, have relentlessly begged for those who know what happened to come forward.
In the weeks after the shooting, Merseyside Police circulated images of then 22-year-old Toxteth man Jason Curry, who was urged to hand himself in for questioning. Curry remained at large for three years, until he was arrested by Spanish police in the Costa del Sol in late 2020, in connection with a robbery which involved a 70-year-old British ex-pat being shot in the leg.
It is understood Curry remains in custody.
Another Merseyside man in custody abroad has not yet been officially named - but a UK police force has confirmed he is wanted in connection with a particularly savage murder.
The 44-year-old is being held in Greece after he was arrested in an armed raid on a luxury villa in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, where police seized 300kg of cocaine which had been hidden in a shipment of bananas. He was detained alongside three other British men, none of who have been named due to strict Greek privacy laws.
However, at the time of the arrests on June 9, Greek media began reporting one of the suspects was wanted for a murder in the UK involving a man being "tortured and burned alive". After the ECHO made enquiries, West Midlands Police confirmed they had been seeking one of the suspects over the murder of 45-year-old Polish national Tomasz Samel.
Mr Samel died in a specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital on June 21, 2019, weeks after he was kidnapped from outside his home in Handsworth, Birmingham. Two men posing as Interpol officers had knocked on his door early on March 27 that year, tricking Mr Samel into climbing into the back of a white Peugeot Boxer van.
The exact mechanics of what happened next are not clear, but during the course of that day Mr Samel was driven 97 miles away to an isolated spot near Bickerstaffe, West Lancashire, where he was dumped with horrific injuries.
The stricken victim was able to find a house and bang on the door for help. He was rushed to hospital where doctors concluded he had suffered 75% burns to his body.
Detectives were able to speak to Mr Samel in the weeks before his death, but have not revealed what he told them or how much useful information they were able to obtain before he eventually succumbed to his horrific injuries.
One man, Kevin Wooden, was named as a suspect in the case but has yet to be apprehended, and no-one has been charged over the murder. The man arrested in Greece is not Wooden, however, who remains at large.
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said "We will be liaising with Greek authorities and other agencies, as our investigation into the murder of Tomasz continues."
A number of people have been arrested as part of the investigation, but no one has yet been charged.
Crimestoppers launched a wanted appeal in 2020, offering a £10,000 reward for information.
Anyone with information about Mr Samel's death can give it to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via its untraceable anonymous online form.
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