On the search notice issued against him, a note appears in red: “dangerous”. Farid Toloun, a former robber from Lyon, has just joined the list of “Most Wanted”, released each year by Europol, the European police agency. The 49-year-old man is now one of the most wanted criminals on the Old Continent.
Born in Vaulx-en-Velin in the suburbs of Lyon, Farid Toloun was in the 1990s “one of the leaders of a criminal organization whose members, particularly determined and violent, carried out a series of armed robberies in the region. Lyonnaise”, explains Europol.
“One of the biggest fugitives”
The robber, “like many at the turn of the 2000s, converted to drug trafficking”, adds Commissioner Guillaume Lacassin, the head of the fugitive search brigade (BNRF) in France. His criminal record makes him “one of the biggest fugitives”, adds the commissioner, adding that the police do not know where he is currently.
Is it hidden in France? Did he take refuge abroad? The man has disappeared from the radar of justice for ten years. Sentenced in 1998 to eight years in prison for armed robbery, Toloun was then sentenced in 2012 to 24 years in prison for intentional homicide. The facts that earned him this last conviction date from June 10, 2005. That night, “with the assistance of three accomplices, he watched two criminals belonging to a rival team”, details Europol.
24 years in prison for intentional homicide
“After several hours of surveillance, and riding a motorcycle, they followed their target” and “fired on the vehicle occupied by their rivals”. The driver died and the passenger was “seriously injured”.
Farid Tolun, who bears a “scar on his forehead and a scar on his right cheek”, “is a particularly dangerous individual. He did not hesitate to fire on the police several times to encourage his escape, in France and abroad, ”says Europol.
Since the launch of the “Most Wanted” campaign in 2016, 120 people have been arrested, including “43 directly” thanks to elements from the campaign, according to Guillaume Lacassin, who cites in particular the case of Frenchman François di Pasquali, wanted for rape and arrested in 2021 in Spain, three months after being included in the Europol list.