Criminal escapes jail in helicopter
French convict had blasted his way out of prison in 2013 but was captured
Anotorious French criminal serving 25 years for murder used a helicopter yesterday to escape from a prison south of Paris, igniting a huge manhunt around the French capital. It was the second time he had escaped from a French prison — the last time he blasted his way out with hidden explosives.
France’s Justice Ministry said Redoine Faid’s escape only took “a few minutes” and no one was injured or taken hostage at Reau Prison. It said “an armed commando landed in a helicopter in the courtyard as the prisoner was in the visiting room” of the facility.
A union representative at Reau Prison, Martial Delabroye, told BFM television that “two men dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and police armbands” entered in the prison to look for Faid. They used a grinding machine to open the door that directly leads to the visiting room, he said.
The helicopter was found later yesterday burned in the town of Garges-les-Gonesse, in the northern suburbs of Paris. Faid is believed to have left by car along with his accomplices.
French prosecutors have opened an investigation but it’s not the first time that Faid, 46, has gone on the lam. In 2013, he blasted his way out of prison with explosives concealed in tissue packs. He was arrested at a hotel six weeks later.
Anotorious career thief who was once France’s most-wanted man pulled off a daring jailbreak yesterday, fleeing a prison in the Paris area by helicopter, officials said.
Redoine Faid, 46, broke out of the prison in Reau in the city’s south-eastern suburbs within minutes, helped by a number of heavily-armed men, sources close to the case said.
The escape came after an appeals court sentenced him to 25 years for masterminding a May 2010 botched armed robbery, in which a policewoman was killed.
Faid fled yesterday with three accomplices. The helicopter was later found in a north-eastern suburb of the French capital, they said.
It is the second time Faid has pulled off a spectacular jailbreak — in 2013, he blasted his way out of a prison in northern France using dynamite.
He had been in prison since mid-2011 for breaking the terms of his parole over past convictions for bank robberies and brazen heists of cash-in-transit vehicles.
Faid was eventually recaptured six weeks later at a hotel in an industrial area on the outskirts of Paris.
Faid, who grew up in tough immigrant suburbs outside Paris, has made several television appearances and co-authored two books about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in the Paris suburbs.
He said his life of crime was inspired by American films such as Scarface and Heat.