Serbian who killed Spanish Civil Guard officers among Italy’s most wanted

A former Serbian solider who allegedly killed three people, including two officers with Spain’s Civil Guard, at an isolated farmhouse in Spain’s Teruel province last Thursday, is one of the most wanted people in Italy, where he is suspected of at least two other murders.

Norbert Feher, also known as Igor the Russian, was on Saturday placed in pre-trial detention where he will remain until sentencing for the murders of Civil Guard officers Víctor Jesús Caballero and Víctor Pérez and of the farmer José Luis Iranzo.

If the 36-year-old is found guilty of the triple homicide in Teruel, he will serve out his sentence for the murders in Spain.

However, Spain’s High Court, the Audiencia Nacional, says Italy could request extradition for trial in that country. In that event, he would be returned to Spain to complete his sentence for the Teruel murders.

Mafia figures excepted, Feher, who also had the alias Igor Vaclavic, is the most wanted criminal in Italy. He had lived in the country since 2006, where he was arrested and spent eight years in prison.

On his release, he reoffended. He had been on the run since April 2017 after allegedly murdering the owner of a tobacconists in Budrio, in northern Italy. He is suspected of having killed the waiter Davide Fabbri in the same location and is also suspected of the murder of the forest ranger Valerio Verri in nearby Portomaggiore, according to Italian media outlets.

Feher was arrested over the three murders in Spain’s Teruel province after eight hours on the run when he was involved in a non-serious traffic accident near the village of Cantavieja, according to police documents. He was sleeping some 200 meters from his vehicle and was in possession of the Beretta service weapons of the Civil Guard officers he allegedly killed.

The murdered officers had been searching for the suspected head of a criminal gang thought to be raiding empty houses in the region. Guided by José Luis Iranzo, who was familiar with the terrain, they arrived at a property in a location known as El Ventorrillo. On trying to enter the property, they were shot dead.

“They knew the individual they were looking for was dangerous because two people had been shot on December 5 in the houses being burgled, and a dog had been killed in another house; because of this the officers were wearing bullet-proof vests, but unexpectedly they ran into Igor the Russian who shot to kill, firing at vital organs,” sources close to the investigation said.

English version by George Mills.