One of Britain’s most wanted fugitives back in UK after eight years on the run

One of Britain’s 'most wanted' men has been brought back to the UK after eight years on the run. Michael Paul Moogan, who spent several years on the National Crime Agency's 'most wanted' list, was arrested in Dubai last April as part of a joint operation between the NCA, Dubai Police and Interpol in Abu Dhabi.

The 36-year-old, originally from Croxteth, Liverpool, has now been charged with his alleged role in an international drugs trafficking plot. He was flown back to the UK on Monday and appeared at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning, an NCA spokesman said.

Moogan is alleged to have gone on the run in October 2013 after a raid on a Rotterdam cafe, suspected of being used as a front for meetings between drug traffickers and cartels and central to an alleged plot to bring hundreds of kilos of cocaine into the UK every week. Working with the Dutch National Crime Squad, the NCA became aware of information that allegedly linked Moogan and two other British men to the Cafe de Ketel – a business not open to the public that could only be entered via a security system.

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Robert Hamilton, now 71 and from Hale, Trafford, was arrested and charged after the raid. He was jailed by a judge in Manchester for eight years in 2014 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import class A drugs. Another man, Robert Gerard, 57, from Liverpool, went on to hand himself in and in 2017, he was jailed for 14 years after admitting drug trafficking charges, the NCA previously said.

Moogan is the 86th person arrested under Operation Captura – an NCA fugitive campaign run in conjunction