AAP

Australians are being asked to help catch 60 of the world's most wanted criminals as part of a global manhunt designed to put serial killers, gangsters and drug smugglers behind bars.

Interpol and Crime Stoppers International launched the operation on Tuesday, appealing to ordinary citizens across the world to help apprehend the fugitives.

Those on the most-wanted list include men such as David MacDonald Carrol, said to frequent Australia, who is wanted by Canadian authorities for his alleged involvement in the murder of 13 rival bikie gang members in Canada between 1995 and 2001.

 

Crime Stoppers International says Carrol, a member of the Quebec Nomads Chapter of the Hells Angels, is accused of conspiring to murder the rival bikies after they refused to buy drugs from him.

Also possibly in Australia is former mining executive Jason Holland, wanted by South African authorities for allegedly siphoning off cash from his firm, Sentula Mining, in 2008.

Crime Stoppers International says the money was placed in a German account, of which Holland was the sole signatory, before he vanished.

Altogether 60 fugitives are being targeted in the operation, which also involves domestic police forces in the US, Canada, Australia, the Caribbean, the western Pacific, India, The Netherlands, the UK, South Africa, New Zealand and South America.

Australian Federal Police are hoping it may help snare Scottish man Anthony Carl Prestidge, wanted in WA for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law.

Organisers of the operation say about 500 million citizens are being asked to report potential sightings of the villains.

"The community is often the first line of defence and the best weapon in flushing out fugitives," NSW police minister Michael Daley said in a statement.

A similar operation in 2009 targeted 145 fugitives and resulted in 45 being located and eight being jailed, Mr Daley added.