AFP

THE HAGUE DUTCH police have recaptured one of Britain’s most wanted fugitives — sentenced to life in prison — after a latenight raid on a luxury Amsterdam apartment, a statement said on Thursday.

A Dutch arrest team pounced on the apartment in Amsterdam-Zuidoost (southeast) belonging to the 26- year-old man, identified by British police as Kirk Bradley, at 11:30 pm (2130 GMT) after an intensive manhunt involving police from both countries.

Last July Bradley and an accomplice were freed in a brash escape plot as they were being transported between jail and London’s Woolwich court, when two cars boxed in a prison transport van and its drivers threatened with guns.

Bradley was later sentenced in absentia to life in jail for his role as a Liverpool gangland boss where he “gave orders for people to be seriously hurt and damage to be caused to buildings using guns and handgrenades.” “The past three weeks Amsterdam police worked closely with their British counterparts to catch one of the most wanted criminals in the United Kingdom,” the statement added. Bradley’s alleged accomplice, Tony Downes, 26, was arrested on March 9 in Goes in southwestern Netherlands