It was a highly sensitive operation for Interpol, the international police cooperation agency based in Lyon. Police in the United Arab Emirates arrested a former official at the organization on Sunday, June 15. The Moldovan was under an arrest warrant issued by French investigating judges, Le Monde learned from a judicial source. "This arrest is part of a sustained and strategic collaboration with international law enforcement agencies," said the Emirati interior ministry in a statement published Thursday on Facebook.

Vitalie Pirlog is at the center of a French judicial investigation into corruption of a foreign public official, organized fraud, use of forged documents, and passive influence peddling. According to a statement released by the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) in June 2024, the proceedings concern a "corruption scheme allowing fugitives to block and erase red notices against them by paying bribes to public officials, particularly in Moldova."

The PNF's preliminary investigation, begun in August 2023, stemmed from a report by Interpol, which had identified irregularities involving several "red notices." These alerts, issued at the request of a country to all 196 member states of the agency, restrict the movement of individuals wanted for prosecution. Interpol observed that a number of these red notices were suspended in 2022 and 2023, as part of a process designed to prevent authoritarian countries from abusing red notices as a means of persecuting political opponents.

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