French police on Thursday caught a second inmate who had escaped from prison in late November by sawing through cell bars and using bedsheets, sources close to the case told AFP.
The 19-year-old escapee, suspected in a drug-linked attempted murder case, was found in the southern port city of Marseille after Interpol issued a red notice for him, two sources close to the case told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
He and another detainee had fled an overcrowded jail in the eastern city of Dijon after sawing through their cell bars with blades that investigators suspect were delivered by drone.
Police tracked down the Marseille native some 310 miles south of the prison to a run-down apartment complex in the north of the city, known to be a drug-dealing hotspot.
His fellow fugitive, a 32-year-old man accused of violence against a partner, was arrested a day after their escape, when police officers swooped down on a village bar where he was sipping coffee.
The Dijon public prosecutor’s office confirmed Thursday’s arrest to AFP, without offering further details.
France has some of the worst prison overcrowding in Europe, ranking third worst after Slovenia and Cyprus, according to a Council of Europe report published in July. In early October, the national average was 135 inmates per 100 places available. Dijon prison, built in 1853, is in poor condition, with 311 inmates for 180 places, according to the justice ministry.
“Old-fashioned” blades
Guards noticed the two men had fled from the Dijon prison before dawn.
The 32-year-old man had left a message in his cell, saying he had been held for “too long,” according to Dijon’s public prosecutor, Olivier Caracotch. It was not immediately clear for how long he had been held.
Union official Ahmed Saih, who represents prison officers at the jail, told AFP shortly after the breakout that the inmates used “old-fashioned, manual saw blades,” and that several such blades had been found previously.
The saws were likely delivered by drones, Caracotch said following the escape, with several individuals already sentenced over drone deliveries to the same jail.
ARNAUD FINISTRE/AFP/Getty
In early October, French prisons hosted 135 inmates per 100 places available.
The Dijon prison, built in 1853, is in poor condition, with 311 inmates for 180 places, according to the justice ministry.
In the week before the breakout, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin announced the Dijon facility was scheduled to receive $7.3 million as part of a program to eradicate mobile phones from six French prisons.
The prison break came less than two weeks after another escape in the northwestern city of Rennes. A 37-year-old convict, who had more than a year left to serve for theft, fled on Nov. 14 during an outing with fellow prisoners to the city’s planetarium. He was later caught in the nearby city of Nantes.
Last year, a boss from one of Italy’s most violent mafias who escaped from a maximum security prison last year by using bedsheets was captured in France, authorities in both countries said Friday. Marco Raduano, described as “dangerous” on Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted criminals, was detained in Bastia on the French island of Corsica.