(Madrid) Spanish police announced on Friday that they had arrested in Madrid a New Zealander sentenced to life in the United States in cases of sex trafficking and pedocrime and who was among the 10 most wanted fugitives by the FBI.
Police say the 40-year-old New Zealander was arrested after being spotted at a hotel in the center of the Spanish capital on Wednesday, where he was staying under one of the false identities he used to avoid being located.
The police did not release the full name of the fugitive, only his initials, “MJP”. This is one of the “ten most wanted fugitives by the FBI”, for which a reward offer of 100,000 dollars had been issued, she nevertheless specified.
According to a source close to the case, it is Michael James Pratt, sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for acts of “child pornography”, “sexual exploitation”, “sexual assault” and ” illicit enrichment”.
According to the FBI website, this New Zealander allegedly recruited several young adult and underage women in the United States and Canada between 2012 and 2019 for forced sex acts, through classified ads for modeling work.
The 40-year-old, who owned a production company and pornographic websites, would then have published the videos of these young women. He would have accumulated thanks to these actions more than 17 million dollars, according to the authorities.
Also accused of sexually assaulting several young women, Michael James Pratt fled after his life sentence. He had been the subject of an international arrest warrant since November 2019.
According to the Spanish police, his presence in Spain had been suspected for some time. American investigators even came on the spot, but “their searches”, carried out “in Barcelona”, had remained “unsuccessful”, specifies the press release.