One of America's "most wanted" fugitives faces deportation from Canada this week after his new fiancee turned him in to police.
Mikhail Drachev, 24, was arrested in Toronto on Friday after his fiancee tipped off police about his identity. He had been living as a fugitive on a murder warrant for more than five years.
"It looks like she's been living with him for at least five years. They first met in Ottawa. They lived in Ottawa for a short time before moving to Toronto," Toronto police Staff Sgt. Paul MacIntyre told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.
Phoenix Detective Stacie Derge said Drachev had been living in Toronto under an alias, and decided a couple of weeks ago to reveal his identity before proposing.
"They were living in a common-law relationship since probably 2001, 2002. And just last week, he came clean, if you will, with his true identity to her," MacIntyre said.
Drachev's fiancee looked up his name online and found his profile on the "America's Most Wanted" website.
But Derge says she didn't tell police about Drachev until Friday, after the couple had some sort of domestic dispute.
"She walked into one of our Toronto police stations out in the city's west end, and she told the officers there that she believed that was living with somebody who was profiled on "America's Most Wanted" TV show," MacIntyre said.
Drachev is charged in the brutal murder of a police informant in Phoenix, Arizona.
Konstantin Simberg, 21, was beaten, stabbed and set on fire before he died in December, 2001.
When Simberg was attacked, he was on the phone with a Phoenix police detective.
Police allege Simberg and four others were hired by a pharmacy manager and his friend to steal 6,000 vials of the human-growth hormone Saizen, worth about US$1 million wholesale and an estimated $3 million on the black market.
Two men have already been convicted in the killing.
Testimony during the trial of one of the men convicted in the slaying revealed Simberg may not have been killed for turning on his accomplices in the heist.
Rather, testimony suggested Simberg was killed after a car-loan deal went bad.
Toronto police worked in partnership with the Canadian Border Services Agency to obtain an arrest warrant.
When police arrived at Drachev's Toronto area high-rise apartment, he had barricaded the door with furniture.
"As we pushed our way in, he was pushing himself back against the door. We eventually made our way into the apartment, he was arrested," MacIntyre said.
Drachev now faces deportation back to Arizona.
"He will be going for an immigration hearing within the next 48 hours and we will be looking at deportation proceedings to return him to the States," MacIntyre said.
