The Civil Guard detains the man who sprayed his ex-partner and a friend with acid

Part of the police device deployed this past Thursday to locate the fugitive.Esther Gómez / EFE

The Civil Guard has arrested José Arcadio DN, 26, whom it considers the alleged perpetrator of the attack on his ex-partner and a friend of her, whom he sprayed with sulfuric acid last Tuesday in the Malaga town of Cártama.

The arrest, confirmed by official sources, thus ends more than three

days of intense search, in which both the Civil Guard and the National Police and the different local police forces of the Costa del Sol have joined forces to locate the fugitive.

The 26-year-old ex-girlfriend, with more than half of her body burned and her respiratory tract affected, is "very, very serious" in the Virgen del Rocío hospital in Seville.

"We fear for his life", said this morning the Minister of Equality, Social Policies and Conciliation of the Junta de Andalucía, Rocío Ruiz.

The other woman, 28, remains "stable within gravity" at the Regional Hospital of Malaga.

The events occurred on Tuesday around two in the afternoon in Cártama - some 20 kilometers west of the Malaga capital - and, since then, the man, a native of Melilla, has been on the run from justice.

The agents have found him on the outskirts of Mijas, a place he knew because his family lives there.

He had hidden in the Entrerríos area, near the road that connects the town of Mijas with Coín and where there are numerous scattered houses.

The man tried to escape from the officers on a motorcycle, but had an accident and, after trying to do so on cross-country foot, was finally arrested.

The

newspaper

highlights that members of the Rapid Action Group (GAR) of the Civil Guard have carried out the arrest, with the support of the National Police and various local police forces.

"The alleged perpetrator of the brutal assault on two women in Cártama has been detained by the Civil Guard, whom I thank for his efforts," said Teófilo Ruiz, deputy delegate of the Government in Malaga, on Twitter.

“Now is the time for justice.

We cannot tolerate more sexist violence ”, he stressed.

Mijas, in addition to being the area where José Arcadio DN lived, was also the city where he had been seen for the last time.

There ended, around midnight last Wednesday, a spectacular chase along the A-7 motorway.

Beyond 10 p.m., he was identified while driving on this road near Casabermeja and numerous police vehicles tried to hunt down the gray Volkswagen Golf that was driving at more than 200 kilometers per hour, with which he managed to skip a police check and came close to running over a police officer.

After more than 60 kilometers of pursuit, the vehicle failed him in the vicinity of Mijas and he fled on foot.

Finally, he has been arrested after a large police deployment on the Costa del Sol, in which citizen collaboration had even been requested.

⚠️RT PLEASE🚩

In this photo published by @Policiabermeja appears the alleged person responsible for spraying two women with acid (his ex-girlfriend and a friend) in Cártama, Málaga.

If you have seen him or know anything about his whereabouts, call us: 091 pic.twitter.com/PEDMCp7lRC

- National Police (@policia) January 14, 2021

Long criminal record

This is not the first arrest of this man, who was already arrested in that town in January 2017 after breaking a restraining order from his previous partner, with whom he has a son.

In 2016, he dragged her by the hair and beat her in a Marbella nightclub, for which he was to be tried last spring.

The judge did not locate him to notify him of the date of the trial, in which he was accused of mistreatment, serious threats and unjust harassment, so he issued a search and arrest warrant.

The trial is scheduled for next January 27, although it has another two pending for robbery with force and intimidation in an inhabited house and belonging to a criminal group.

He also has seven other arrest warrants in force.

He was also wanted for the crimes of drug trafficking, robbery and intimidation, against road safety and belonging to a criminal group.

In fact, he has six convictions for entering prison.

Five of them for driving without a license between 2013 and 2016. And one more, for three years in prison, for assault on authority and injuries, when punching a police officer.

According to the agents during the trial, the defendant "became very aggressive and, with a cocky and provocative tone, threatened to kill them, adding that he had financial capacity and that he did not care."

Finally, after almost four days on the run, he was arrested.