The Civil Guard has put an end to a search that lasted two years and four months with the arrest of the cultural manager and writer Natalio Grueso, 55, on the island of Culatra, a small fishing village in the Portuguese Algarve. The agents specialized in fugitives were able to find Grueso after studying his literary work, in which this coastal area appeared, aware that it could serve as a clue to his location.
Upon arriving at the scene, investigators found the fugitive in a surprisingly calm demeanor: taking notes and working with a tablet while sipping a white wine, a behavior that, according to sources consulted, fit his profile as a writer. It was the image of the fugitive in an idyllic setting that marked the end of his flight from justice.
A life on the run after a final conviction
Grueso had been missing for more than two years, since he should have gone to prison to serve an eight-year sentence for embezzlement of public funds related to his management of the Niemeyer Center in Asturias between 2006 and 2011. That scandal – which dealt a severe blow to his reputation – made him one of the most wanted fugitives by the Spanish authorities.
The agents of the UCO Fugitives from Justice Team went to the island of Culatra after carefully tracking their possible movements and places of interest, detecting that this place, practically unknown to most people, was linked to Grueso’s literary references.
The moment of discovery
The operation culminated in a cafeteria terrace where the fugitive was chatting with the owner of the establishment, who had shown him the catch of the day displayed on the counter. The investigators saw him calm, interacting naturally with the owner and then walking with him through the streets of the small town – streets without cars and hardly any population – which allowed the agents to confirm that Grueso had been there for a long time and had adapted to local life.
A witness, the owner of one of the restaurants, confirmed to EL PAÍS that the former cultural manager was his neighbor, although they had barely exchanged more than polite greetings.
The role of international cooperation
The capture was possible thanks to the collaboration between the Guardia Civil and the Portuguese Judicial Police. The Spanish agents had warned their Portuguese colleagues that they were looking for Grueso and gave them permission to follow his trail, although with the instruction not to arrest him until they confirmed his identity, which was finally done in the municipality of Olhão, after taking the ferry from the island.
During the wait, the agents could not follow him any longer on the island because “they could not follow him any longer because they were going to give themselves away, since there were very few people on the streets of the town,” explained the head of the UCO’s Fugitives from Justice Team.
The arrest occurred when Grueso boarded the same boat as the agents, apparently to make the purchase on the mainland. At first he denied his identity, but when he heard the agents speaking in Spanish, he understood that his attempt to go unnoticed was over. He had no documentation on him and it is not known if he was using another name.
The writer and his characters: reality and fiction
Grueso’s life, in addition to his work as a cultural manager, was marked by his literary career. The fugitive is the author of several works in which places and characters appear that could well have served as a guide for the agents. Among his best-known characters is Bruno Labastide, a globetrotter whose story unfolds in exotic ports such as Seville, Tortuga or Hong Kong, in search of a lost Spanish gold. Books such as La soledad ( 2014) and La República de los ladrones ( 2017) won praise from writers such as Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Fernando Sánchez Dragó or journalist Luis María Anson.
This duality between fiction and real life made it easier for the researchers to keep all the hypotheses open and, finally, helped them to focus their efforts on places like the Algarve, present in Grueso’s own references.
Future steps and delivery to Spain
Grueso’s lawyer, Francisco Miranda, has assured that his client has agreed to be handed over to the Spanish authorities, a process that is scheduled to take place next Monday, December 15. He has not yet been able to speak directly with him, but has commented that the Portuguese authorities have informed that he would be transferred, although he believes that it may be a move to another prison in Portugal before being handed over.
A trajectory in cultural management
Prior to his flight, Grueso had a distinguished career in the cultural field. He was director of the Teatro Español and director of Performing Arts for the city of Madrid between 2012 and 2014. In addition, he is the author of a dozen titles, including Woody Allen: The Last Genius, where he paid tribute to the filmmaker, and theatrical adaptations of works such as La fiesta del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa or Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. Many of these versions continued to be performed even during his escape, which makes it likely that he continued to receive income from intellectual rights.
The fugitive’s environment and the clue that led to his capture
One of the maxims of the agents specialized in locating fugitives is not to lose sight of the fugitive’s environment. In the case of Grueso, they initially observed friends and relatives without finding anything to indicate his whereabouts: “Apparently he had broken the link,” say the UCO.
However, the key came when they detected that some of their relatives were traveling to Portugal from Huelva. That clue triggered the alert and they focused on the movements associated with those trips. In October, they found that the relatives had left a car parked in Olhão and did not pick it up until days later, which reinforced the hypothesis that the target could be on the nearby island. Once the agents got off the ferry on the island of Culatra, they did not have to look too hard: in the first coffee shop they searched they found Natalio Grueso.
