A New Zealander sentenced to life in prison in the United States for crimes of
child pornography, exploitation and sexual assault
, and who was among the 10 most wanted fugitives by the FBI, has been arrested in Madrid, Spanish police announced on Friday.
The
40-year-old
man was arrested after being located on Wednesday in a hotel in the center of the Spanish capital, where he was staying using a false identity, police said.
The police did not release the full name of the fugitive, limiting themselves to identifying him with his initials, "MJP".
He is one of the "ten most wanted fugitives by the FBI", for whom a
reward of $100,000 was offered,
the security body said in a statement.
According to a source close to the case, it is about
Michael James Pratt,
sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States for crimes of "child pornography", "sexual exploitation", "sexual assault" and "illicit enrichment".
According to the FBI portal, this New Zealander
would have recruited several young women and minors
in the United States and Canada between 2012 and 2019 to subject them to forced sexual acts, through advertisements offering modeling work.
The individual, who owned a production company and pornographic web pages, would have published the videos of these girls and amassed
more than 17 million dollars
with that activity, according to the authorities.
Michael James Pratt, who was also accused of sexually abusing several young women, went
on the run after being sentenced to life in prison
.
In November 2019, an international arrest warrant was issued against him.
According to Spanish police, the man was suspected of having been in Spain
for some time
.
A team of American investigators traveled to Spain, but "after numerous checks
, no results were obtained
," according to the statement.
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