Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by A.R. Fomenko
VIENNA BUREAU – The European underworld called him La Mouche. The Fly. Only 30 years old, Mohamed Amra had been a specter for months, slipping through the cracks and mocking the law with every breath he took as a free man. On Saturday, his luck ran dry. Authorities spotted him near a Bucharest shopping mall sporting a crude disguise, with bright orange hair and a beard. And just like that, the most wanted man in France was in cuffs. On Tuesday, he was extradited to France, where prosecutors launched their formal investigation.
It was a mundane end to a crime that nine months earlier shocked France to its core.
Ambush in Normandy
The strike was fast. Precise. Merciless. It was a job straight out of an underworld playbook—calculated, ruthless, and over in minutes. In May 2024, a prison van carrying Amra rolled up to a toll crossing, the guards oblivious to the stolen Peugeot in their path. The Peugeot gunned its engine, and rammed the prison vehicle head-on.
Then came the gunmen.
Dressed in black, moving with cold precision, they streamed out of the Peugeot and a nearby Audi, and opened fire. The toll booth became a war zone. Bullets tore through metal and flesh, shattering windshields, silencing guards before they had a chance to fight back. Surveillance cameras caught it all—the chaos, the muzzle flashes, and the moment the ambush team pulled The Fly from the van, and vanished.
Hours later, authorities found a getaway car —a burned-out husk abandoned in another part of town. A classic move, leaving nothing but ashes behind.
La Mouche
Authorities described Amra as a lifelong criminal whose early offenses began when he was 11 years old. His crimes involved violence, theft and extortion, the Paris public prosecutor said. He became known as an enforcer, and then as a leader.
READ MORE from A.R. Fomenko – Death of a Warlord: One More Murder in Moscow
The prosecutor’s office laid out the details like a coroner reading a post-mortem. Amra had been convicted of burglary just days before his escape, locked away in Val de Reuil prison, they said. He was under indictment for a kidnapping that ended in death.
A few days before Amra escaped in the ambush, he tried to saw through the bars of his cell, his lawyer, Hugues Vigier, told journalists last year.
When Amra escaped successfully and vanished, the French government labeled him “public enemy number one.”
The Fly
France suspected Amra had fled the country, and issued a Red Notice through Interpol, the international police agency. The long list of charges included murder by an organized gang, attempted murder by an organized gang, escape by an organized gang, theft by an organized gang, fraud committed by an organized gang, and the unauthorized acquisition of war material, weapons, ammunition, or their category A components.
The headlines screamed his name. The Fly remained on the loose, seemingly untouchable.
The Manhunt
But the trail wasn’t cold. The manhunt pressed on – until somehow The Fly was traced to Romania. And the net began to close. On Feb. 22, authorities arrested La Mouche.
They say he tried to change his look. Dyed his hair red, and are glasses. But facial recognition software and fingerprints were sharper than any disguise. Romanian police made the ID, and just like that, the man who slipped through the cracks was pinned down at last. On Feb. 22, authorities arrested La Mouche.
“After a manhunt lasting several months, Amra has been arrested, finally!” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou declared on X, the relief cutting through the words.
President Emmanuel Macron called it “a formidable success.”
By Monday night, more than 20 suspects were detained in multiple countries, including Spain and Morocco. The long prosecution process has only begun.
For now, sources say, The Fly is stuck to the trap.
A.R. Fomenko is based out of Soldier of Fortune’s Vienna Bureau.
