Former head of Interpol’s CCF arrested on Red Notice

You couldn’t make it up.

Vitalie Pîrlog, the former chair of Interpol’s Commission for the Control of Files (CCF), has been arrested in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to reports in Le Monde, The New York Times, and Gulf News, Pîrlog was detained in Abu Dhabi earlier this month at the request of the French authorities. A Red Notice had been issued for his arrest as part of a far-reaching corruption investigation being led by the French financial prosecutor’s office (PNF). Pîrlog is accused of accepting bribes to manipulate Interpol systems and Moldovan immigration and asylum decisions – in order to trick Interpol into deleting Red Notices for purported refugees.

None of this should come as a surprise to those who have been following this story closely. As we discussed previously, Pîrlog is alleged to have ensured that dozens of Red Notices by allowing individuals to buy refugee status in his Home Country of Moldova.

The French investigation appears to have been prompted by a confidential Interpol internal report, which raised alarm bells about the irregular handling of multiple case files during Pîrlog’s tenure. At least thirty notices were reportedly affected, many of them involving individuals later discovered to have ties to fugitive businesspeople or political elites. These were not marginal or procedural errors, the suspensions allowed targets of international criminal investigations to travel freely and, in some cases, to obtain political asylum on the basis of incomplete or manipulated records.

That this arrest took place in the UAE is interesting. The current president of Interpol, Ahmed Naser al-Raisi, is himself a senior Emirati official, and the UAE has long been criticised for using its influence within Interpol to protect its allies and pursue its adversaries. Pîrlog, it seems, may have overestimated the limits of that protection. According to Gulf News, the Emirati authorities moved on the basis of a French extradition request and executed the arrest under international cooperation procedures. They are now said to be reviewing competing claims for extradition.

This raises a difficult question: where will Pîrlog be sent – and when? France, as the issuing country of the Red Notice, appears to have the strongest legal case and the most developed investigation. However, Moldova may also seek his extradition, particularly if new charges are brought relating to his conduct within the country’s own legal and political systems. The UAE does not always move quickly in such cases. Extradition requests are subject to multiple layers of legal scrutiny, and the UAE courts are known for taking a cautious approach, particularly when political sensitivities are involved.

The UAE’s extradition treaty with France, signed in 2007, is relatively robust and has been used in the past to return suspects for prosecution. However, the process is not automatic, and the UAE is known to harbour numerous high-profile fugitives.

Pîrlog’s arrest may mark the beginning of a new phase in this long-running scandal, but it is far from the end of the story. Whether he ends up in a French courtroom will depend on a complex interplay of legal, political, and diplomatic factors. What is clear, however, is that the walls are closing in on the corruption.