A Gedling police team surprised a wanted man by swooping in and arresting him as he waited to pick his family up from the airport.
A plan was drawn up to recall the suspect to prison after he was adjudged to have breached the conditions of his licence.
When intelligence suggested the man would be flying into East Midlands Airport on Thursday (29) afternoon, the Gedling Operation Reacher team went along to greet him at arrivals.
After it became apparent that the suspect was not on an inbound flight, the team reacted swiftly by working with officers from Leicestershire Police and Border Force officials to pinpoint the location of a car connected to him.
The vehicle was then tracked to the airport, where the man was intercepted and detained as he pulled in to pick up his family who were themselves due to return from holiday.
As a result of the operation, the 33-year-old suspect was arrested and recalled to prison.
Sergeant James Carrington, of Nottinghamshire Police’s Gedling Operation Reacher team, said: “Despite the picture changing somewhat when we arrived at the scene, my team thought quickly on their feet and carried out some great intelligence work in real-time.
“This perseverance ultimately led to us identifying the location of the suspect’s car and tracking its movements to the airport, where we worked out the suspect wasn’t on a plane but was actually on his way to pick someone else up.
“This was a great example of the tenacity of our officers at Nottinghamshire Police and how well we can work with other forces and, in this case, Border Force officials, to get a positive result.
“It also emphasised the value of Operation Reacher and what we can offer, even beyond our borders, so I’m extremely proud of my team for the way they responded to this situation.”
