What is an Interpol Red Notice? | Federal Criminal Defense Attorney Explains

A red notice is not exactly an arrest warrant, but what it means is it's a notice from one country to another country that you are wanted for a crime. To have that red notice issue, then you will be provisionally detained in that member state by law enforcement. Now, the CCF, by the way, is independent of Interpol. Today I want to talk a little bit about Interpol's Red Notice system. Now, as I mentioned before, I mean, what the Red Notice is, is it's something that, you know, if it's lodged against you by Interpol, I mean, it can impact whether or not you may be detained either at an airport or in another member state country. First of all, what's important to know is that a Red Notice is not exactly an arrest warrant, okay? Interpol is not its own investigatory or law enforcement agency, so they don't issue their own arrest warrants. But what What it means is it's a notice from one country to another country that you are wanted for a crime, and it asks that other member country to provisionally detain you or arrest you pending either your surrender or extradition requests, you know, something to kind of get you back into that requesting country's jurisdiction. Now, whether all of this is true, whether or not, you know, the requirements have actually been met for you to be justifiably detained. I mean, that's a separate question. I mean, all it means is that Interpol has made this first determination that there is enough evidence to arrest you and you'll be arrested. So, I mean, the long and short of it is this: if a country has requested Interpol to issue a red notice and if they have met the criteria that Interpol sets out, to have that red notice issue, then you will be provisionally detained in that member state by law enforcement. I mean, you will be taken into detention, and that's where you will remain pending, you know, again, whatever the country decides to do by way of extraditing you back to it. So that leads to sort of another question, right? I mean, how do you know whether or not there is a red notice issued against you? Now, some red notices are just simply online. I mean, you just go to Interpol's website, you do a search, you can do it by nationality, you can do it by name, and you just look to see if it's there. But that's a relatively small universe of names that are actually on the Red Notice list. And so if you want to know definitively whether you have a Red Notice issued against you, what you do is you, either you or you have your attorney, reach out to the Commission for the Control of Files, or CCF, and you find out. Now, this is not something where you just pick up the phone and call and they're going to tell you whether or not you've got a red notice. I mean, there is an application process. You've got to make sure that your application is properly filled out and that it has the required signatures on it. Now, all of this is supposed to be confidential, Whether or not it is, I think, is something that kind of remains to be seen. If you're making an inquiry and you want to do so discreetly, but by its own terms, you know, Interpol has indicated that these requests are confidential. And then once you properly file that application, you've got— Interpol will take— it will try to have sort of a resolution to this question within 4 months, and they will give you notice within that 4-month period. Now, the CCF, by the way, is independent of Interpol. Ostensibly, this means that they are not beholden to Interpol's decisions. So when we talk later about actually challenging your inclusion on Interpol's Red Notice list, you know, that becomes pretty important. This is a stopgap feature that functions to protect innocent people from being on a Red Notice list. And so that's how you find out whether or not you're in your system or whether you're in Interpol's system. If you are in their system, there are ways to challenge your inclusion, and so that's going to be the focus of another installment of this, of these videos that I want to talk about. But if you have any questions sort of about the Red Notice system in general or your inclusion on it more specifically, please call our office at 803-445-1333 or visit us at our website at www.elizabethfranklinbest.com and leave us a message there.