Canadian police on bicycles have nabbed one of America’s most wanted criminals in a chance encounter during a routine patrol of Montreal streets.

Katay-Khaophone Sychantha, 35, a Laos national living in Canada, was wanted both in the United States and in Ontario province for narcotics trafficking and related crimes.

The two policemen tried to arrest two men for drug possession on a city bike path when one of them tried to flee, officials said Monday.

Giving chase, one of the officers quickly caught up to the suspect, but would only learn his identity after taking him back to a police station for fingerprinting and matching those to prints in a US Homeland Security database of the 10 most wanted criminals.

They also noted a description in the warrant saying he was missing the tip of his middle finger on his right hand.

Sychantha is the suspected ring leader of a drug-smuggling organisation that supplied ecstasy pills and marijuana to distributors in several US states.

He allegedly directed individuals to smuggle millions of dollars in cash, guns, cocaine and heroin from the United States into Canada.

AFP