Europol publishes list and profiles of 62 most wanted criminals

The profiles of Europe's 62 most wanted suspects or convicted criminals were published online by the EU law enforcement agency Europol with an appeal to the public to help in the search for them.

The list published on Friday includes 61 men and one woman. Among them are fraudsters, drug dealers, robbers and murderers.

The most famous name in the list is probably Jan Marsalek. The former CEO of German payments provider Wirecard is "strongly suspected of having committed commercial gang fraud, the particularly serious case of embezzlement and other property and economic offences," according to Europol.

The 41-year-old Austrian has probably left Germany and gone underground abroad, the agency said.

The list includes the Spanish Antonio Angles, wanted by the Spanish security forces for being the main suspect along with his accomplice Miguel Ricart in the kidnapping, torture and rape of three girls in Alcasser (Valencia) in 1992.

Many people in the list have already been sentenced to long prison terms, but were able to flee. For some of the wanted criminals, Europol is offering high rewards for information leading to their capture.

There is a reward of 25,000 euros (28,270 dollars), for example, for information regarding Norman Volker Franz, a German sentenced to life imprisonment for a double murder.

Somewhere in the world

Europol assumes that many of the wanted people are engaged in unsuspicious activities somewhere in the world and have dealings with unsuspecting people in everyday life.

That is why the motto of this year's most wanted campaign is "Hiding in plain sight."

The public is called on to look at the faces and crime descriptions, and possible tips can be entered, also anonymously, directly on the website.

Since Europol launched the first most wanted campaign in 2016, it has been able to arrest 110 criminals, 41 of them based on tips sent to the police agency via the website.