Hello I'm El Solitario: police hail capture of alleged killer

Jaime Jimenez Arbe, alias El Solitario, Spain's most wanted criminal, is escorted by police from court in the Portuguese city of Figueira da Foz
Jaime Jimenez Arbe, alias El Solitario, Spain's most wanted criminal, is escorted by police from court in the Portuguese city of Figueira da Foz. Photograph: Sergio Azenha/EPA
He lived in a three-storey house in a middle-class Madrid dormitory town. According to his neighbours, he liked to play folk music in his garage.

And while the neighbours variously described him as helpful and friendly, or argumentative and aggressive (and there had been the time someone shot dead his dog and set light to his car), none of them ever imagined that he might be Spain's most wanted criminal, El Solitario - the Loner, as the notorious bank robber and police killer was nicknamed.

Yesterday, Jaime Jiménez Arbe, 51, left the courthouse at Figuiera da Foz, in western Portugal, on his way to custody. Spain has already requested his extradition.

As he went, he shouted: "Hello everyone, I'm El Solitario!"

Mr Arbe was arrested on Monday. Allegedly, he walked into a bank armed with a machine gun and wearing a bullet-proof jacket. But this time half a dozen armed police were waiting. He reportedly attempted to reach for one of his guns before realising he could not shoot his way out of trouble.

The arrest was celebrated by Spanish police, who had been shadowing Mr Arbe for two months after an anonymous tip-off that he was in Las Rozas. They had warned their Portuguese colleagues after he made two visits to Figueira da Foz.

"I still can't believe it," said one neighbour and close friend of the family. "I just can't imagine that it could be him."

Mr Arbe's British ex-wife Anna was not available for comment. Neighbours said she had moved out of the house they shared several years ago with their two sons, who are now in their late teens.

"He had a strong character and got into arguments with some people," said another neighbour. "But he would lend you tools, or help you push your car; and he was a lot more polite than some others on the street."

Mr Arbe's arguments with some neighbours had led to his white mastiff dog being shot dead, and his car set alight in the night. One neighbour successfully took him to court after he angrily shunted her car out of his driveway. He drove a small white van, did not live a particularly luxurious lifestyle, bought the left-leaning El País newspaper, and was visited regularly by his sons, who lived with Anna elsewhere in the town.

Police searched his home and a nearby industrial unit and said they found a machine gun and documents relating to El Solitario's exploits. Spanish police allege that over 13 years he carried out more than 30 armed robberies.

As his name suggests, he worked alone. Wearing a false beard and armed with a machine gun and pistol, he took only readily available cash, reportedly anything from €108,000 (£72,000) to as little as €6,000.

One bank employee was injured in the most recent Spanish raid in the town of Toro in May. When challenged by two civil guard agents in Navarra in north Spain, he allegedly killed them both. Police also accuse him of killing a municipal policeman in the eastern town of Vall d'Uxó.

For years police suspected that his modus operandi, never leaving behind fingerprints, and his weapons proficiency, meant El Solitario might be a past or present police officer or soldier. Mr Arbe is reported to have avoided doing military service when young.

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