Sources said Interpol has communicated to Goa police's crime branch that Atala has been arrested by Peru police. Atala was wanted in 16 different cases in his country, ranging from drug peddling, assault, theft and fraud. 

On August 7, 2010, crime branch learnt that Atala, who is the main link in the police-drug mafia nexus case in the state, was missing from his hotel where he was staying after being granted bail. Crime branch then issued a look out circular against Atala as well as moved an application in the NDPS Court to cancel Atala's bail application. He had been released on bail in June 2010. 

Crime branch arrested Atala and later seven policemen after Atala's former model girlfriend Lucky Farmhouse uploaded videos on the internet in which the Israeli was seen boasting of his connections to policemen and politicians in Goa. 

The high court of Bombay at Goa had criticized the manner in which Atala was arrested and observed that by arresting Atala first, the investigating agency had damaged their case as he could have been a witness against policemen. 

Observing that if the video footage formed the basis of the FIR, then it is the applicant who ought to have been arrested first and not Atala even before the FIR was lodged. The court had noted, "If the drug peddlers as well as the policemen sit on the same dock, without much evidence to connect them nothing may come out from the prosecution, if lodged."