It was almost midnight when the surveillance team spotted their target at the base of the cavernous luxury apartment complex. He fit the picture on the international arrest warrant which had urgently been issued just weeks previously -- a French-Algerian in his early 20s with buzz-cut hair and thick arching eyebrows. The agents, who belonged to the DCRI -- France's domestic security service, logged the time -- 23.20 on February 11, 2014 -- and immediately radioed their superiors, who told them to move in to make the arrest. When he saw them, the man fled through a gate leading to the staircases, according to French investigators. They gave chase as he clambered up the stairwell to the floors with commanding views over the marina, golf course and Mediterranean. Now that he knew they were on to him they could not afford to let him escape.
@highlight
Ibrahim Boudina, a French national from Algeria, was arrested earlier this year on the French Riviera
@highlight
He and a French-Tunisian friend are suspected of having joined up with ISIS in Syria
@highlight
It was believed they fled ahead of a crackdown on a suspected terror cell based on Mediterranean coast
@highlight
Authorities were worried the duo could pose a threat if they returned to France
@placeholder was placed under formal investigation on suspicion of participation in a criminal conspiracy to prepare acts of terrorism.