U.S. Marshals Capture One of Quebec's Most Wanted Fugitives in Florida

Washington – An intense manhunt has ended with the capture of John Boulachanis, a fugitive wanted on an international level. Boulachanis was apprehended in Miami Thursday.

Boulachanis is the subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice issued at the request of Canadian authorities for his role in a brutal slaying that occurred in Quebec, Canada, in 1997.

Boulachanis was also being sought by Canadian law enforcement for criminal charges of fraud, arson, narcotics trafficking, conspiracy and weapons offenses. Franklin County, Va. holds an outstanding felony fugitive warrant for Boulachanis as well, issued for three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses.

In April 2011, INTERPOL Ottawa requested the assistance of INTERPOL Washington in locating Boulachanis. According to the Surete’ du Quebec Homicide Squad, Boulachanis had been previously located in New Jersey in 2009, but fled before investigators could make an appropriate identification and arrest.

The case was referred to the INTERPOL Washington Fugitive Division after having been made a priority by the USMS and INTERPOL Headquarters in Lyon, France, in response to an earlier international fugitive initiative entitled “INFRA-RED.” Agents assigned to the INTERPOL Washington Fugitive Division from the U.S. Marshals Service and the Pinellas County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation.

“The arrest of Boulachanis shows that, no matter how far this fugitive ran, he couldn’t escape the coordinated, international effort to apprehend him,” said Geoff Shank, Assistant Director of the Investigative Operations Division of the U.S. Marshals Service.  “I thank our law enforcement partners both here and in Canada for their assistance in bringing this dangerous criminal to justice.”

In May 2011, investigators were able to ascertain Boulachanis and an accomplice had assumed multiple identities supported by fraudulent documents.  He has evaded capture by assembling a complex labyrinth of intentional disinformation, telephone numbers, addresses, financial accounts and postal boxes in Canada and the United States.

On Thursday, at the request of INTERPOL Washington and the U.S. Marshals Service Investigative Operations Division, members of the U.S. Marshals Service Southern Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Miami captured Boulachanis as he landed a small aircraft at an airfield in Miami. He was in possession of a fraudulent diplomatic passport, a fraudulent pilot’s license and an unlicensed semi-automatic weapon. The Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement took his accomplice into custody.

Boulachanis is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting extradition to Canada where he faces life in prison.

The arrest of Boulachanis was the result of the combined efforts of the U.S. Marshals Service Investigative Operations Division, Southern Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force, Western District of Virginia, Jacksonville Fugitive Task Force, and the New York and New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force; the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office; the Surete’ du Quebec Homicide Squad; the U.S. Department of Justice Office of International Affairs; the Franklin County (Virginia) Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney’s Offices; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia; the Michigan State Police; the Nebraska State Police; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the U.S. Coast Guard; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; INTERPOL Ottawa; and INTERPOL Washington.