Spanish ‘DJ’ Living In Taoyuan Extradited To Italy

Interpol Red Notice

In cooperation with Italian authorities, Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) announced Wednesday that they had deported a Spanish national wanted under an Interpol Red Notice.

It is understood the individual in question, Juan Texta, had avoided detection by Italian law enforcement by living in Taiwan since the mid-2010s.

He was wanted in Italy where he had failed to serve a sentence of six years and two months following his conviction on charges of sexual assault and kidnapping back in 2010.

The Italian police informed their Taiwanese counterparts in 2018, of his suspected presence in Taiwan.

Law enforcement in Taiwan then investigated the case themselves, finding that Texta had first arrived in Taiwan in March 2013 as a tourist, before he returned a year later on a student visa, subsequently going underground in Taoyuan, south west of Taipei.

Texta had been working as a DJ in Taiwan, but ran foul of local laws when an electric bicycle he owned caused personal injury to others in 2014.

Now in his mid-30s, Texta was placed under surveillance by Taiwanese police earlier this year, before being detained at his apartment in Taoyuan in February.

He was subsequently deported from Taiwan on April 24th.

Mark Buckton

Mark is a journalism vet of 20 years with most of those years spent in Tokyo, Japan, as a columnist for The Japan Times and numerous other publications. His work has appeared on CNN, in the BBC, NPR, and in several dozen other media forms and publications across five continents.