A convicted Romanian gangster, Adrian Preda, who runs a children’s fight club in London, has successfully dodged extradition to Romania after a British judge ruled that sending him back would destroy his family life.
Adrian Preda, 44, will remain in north west London, where he operates the “Preda Fight Club” gym located in Kingsbury. District Judge Kevin Grego decided that extraditing Preda would impose an “unacceptable burden” on his wife and their three young children, aged 12, 9, and 8.
“There is no option other than her returning to Romania with the children if he is extradited,” the judge quoted Preda’s wife, who fears losing their home in the UK and the ability to visit her husband regularly.
Romania issued a new European Arrest Warrant in 2024, demanding that Preda serve multiple sentences. His criminal record includes attempted murder, assaulting police officers during a nightclub brawl, and connections to the notorious Sportivii crime network.
The Sportivii gang has been linked to £2 million worth of heroin trafficking, theft of army weapons, and violent street shootings in Bucharest. Despite being sentenced to nine years, Preda fled to London after being released on bail while appealing his conviction.
This marks the second time UK courts have blocked Romania’s extradition request. In 2018, the courts ruled that overcrowded Romanian prisons posed a human rights risk, preventing his extradition at that time.
Judge Grego acknowledged improvements in Romanian prisons but emphasized that family rights took precedence in this case. Preda’s legal team argued that sending him back would violate his Article 8 rights to private and family life under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Preda maintains that he has been unfairly targeted due to corruption in Romania and insists that he now leads a clean life. Social media posts show him training children and adults in mixed martial arts at his gym. He also once participated in a cage fight against controversial influencer Tristan Tate.
The ruling has sparked political outrage. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp condemned the verdict as a “disgrace.” He stated, “Because of the ECHR, we cannot deport a dangerous foreign national offender wanted for violent crimes. He should not be in our country.”
Philp pledged that a future Conservative government would abolish the European Convention on Human Rights to increase deportations to 150,000 per year, targeting all foreign offenders and illegal immigrants.
Originally published by UKNIP.
