Gangster f lees in a helicopter – after pals land in prison yard!
‘Faid may try to go to Israel’
A NOTORIOUS gangster was whisked from his high-security jail yesterday when armed henchmen landed a hijacked helicopter in the prison courtyard.
Crime boss Redoine Faid, 46, boarded the aircraft after it swooped down into the jail near Paris where he was serving 25 years for armed robbery.
Guards could only look on in amazement after being ordered not to shoot by bosses for fear of causing a crash inside the prison perimeter.
Incredibly, it was Faid’s second spectacular jailbreak in five years. In 2013 he escaped after seizing four guards as human shields and blowing several doors off with dynamite.
Yesterday’s incident started when three men created a diversion by starting a gun fight outside the prison in Reau, 30 miles north-east of Paris.
The Belgium-registered helicopter then flew in with a ‘commando team’ of two balaclava-clad accomplices, piloted by a man said to have been taken hostage. After landing, the duo – wearing police armbands and brandishing Kalashnikovs – lit smoke grenades as they made their way to a prison visiting room where Faid was with his brother.
Faid was then taken to the aircraft, which flew across the French capital before being dumped on land close to Charles de Gaulle airport.
The occupants were seen fleeing in a black Renault Megane in the direction of the A1 motorway that links Paris to the northern city of Lille.
Prison unionist Martial Delabroye said the whole operation lasted only ten minutes. Wardens, who were unarmed, fled to safety and raised the alarm.
It is understood that the helicopter was later found in a northeastern suburb of Paris about 37 miles from the prison.
A police source said the helicopter pilot was a flight instructor waiting for a student when he was seized by Faid’s accomplices. He was forced to fly before being later freed in a state of shock.
The men apparently went on to use a car that was later found torched in a shopping mall car park.
Faid, described as ‘extremely dangerous’, is thought to have strong links with Israel and it is feared he may try to flee there.
The criminal, who comes from a French-Algerian background, published a book in 2009 in which he detailed his upbringing in Paris’s troubled suburbs – and he even claimed that he had given up crime.
But in 2010 he tried to mastermind a robbery on a bullion van during which a 26-year-old policewoman was killed.
She was shot as members of Faid’s gang fired their Kalashnikov assault rifles at pursuing police cars. Given a lengthy sentence, he blasted his way out of Sequedin prison, near Lille, in 2013 using dynamite.
The gangster, who was once declared France’s most wanted man, was recaptured six weeks later in a hotel and was returned to prison to resume his sentence. Two of his gang are still in jail for the policewoman’s murder.
A Paris security source said yesterday: ‘Israel is a popular destination for those fleeing justice in France, and Faid may well try and go back there.’
Faid’s brother Brahim was last night in police custody over suspicions he helped plan the raid. Reau Prison has no security nets to stop helicopters or drones.
Other jailbirds have escaped by helicopter before. In 1987, two prisoners were sprung from the exercise yard at HM Gartree in Leicestershire with the aid of a hijacked Bell 206L.