Where is the last place you would look for a white supremacist on the run? Micky Mayon, an alleged neo-Nazi on the FBI’s most-wanted list, decided that it had to be Israel.

For two years, the suspected Ku Klux Klan member lay low in the Jewish state after fleeing the US. His luck ran out yesterday, when undercover Israeli immigration police raided his Tel Aviv flat.

Mr Mayon, 32, fled the US on November 1, 2007, boarding a flight to Tel Aviv after being suspected of burning the car of a judge who ordered that he should stand trial on firearms charges. He arrived on a one-month tourist visa but stayed on illegally. He was known for preaching white supremacist, neo-Nazi views in his home town of Steelton, Pennsylvania. Israeli authorities were told by Interpol that he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan. The website of the television programme America’s Most Wanted claimed that he had been to rallies of the Aryan Brotherhood.

“He was here because he thought this was the last place they would look for him,” Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said.

“He said that he did not hold a job while in Israel but made some money by washing dishes and that his parents sent him money to make ends meet.”

Mr Mayon is said to have moved often to evade police, but undercover officers from the National Immigration Authority’s Oz unit staked out his apartment after a tip-off.

“We didn’t expect to partake in this kind of activity while enforcing immigration laws,” Tziki Sela, the head of the Oz unit, said. “But the law is the law, and it applies to all illegal migrants — it is enforced in the same way.”

American officers are expected to arrive in Israel soon to escort Mr Mayon back to the US, where he will await trial on charges of racist assault, setting fire to vehicles belonging to federal agents and a series of violent incidents.

“The search for Mayon came to a successful conclusion with the actions in Israel,” said Marshal Michael Regan. “Locating Mayon in a foreign country sends a strong message that you can run but you cannot hide.”

Mr Mayon was not the first neo-Nazi to take up residence in Israel. In September 2007, Israeli police discovered a group of young immigrants from the former Soviet Union who formed a neo-Nazi cell in the city of Petah Tikva.

The group made films of themselves carrying out hate crimes, wearing Nazi insignia and proclaiming allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Eight were imprisoned.

Israelis called for an inquiry into how the group managed to form their cell under the noses of officials. There were also calls for the law to be changed to revoke Israeli citizenship and deport neo-Nazis.

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