Final arrests take place at Alicante service station
The government, as well as President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, have congratulated PJ police on coordinating efforts to recapture the final two prisoners who broke out of Vale de Judeus jail on a sunny Saturday morning last September.
Justice minister Rita Júdice wasted no time in putting out a statement yesterday, when the news was broken, saying “ it is very gratifying to see that, five months after the escape of five dangerous inmates from Vale de Judeus, they have all been recaptured (…) This success is proof of the trust that citizens should have” in the country’s police, she added.
But the PJ police who masterminded this painstaking recapture are just anxious that all the men will be extradited quickly to Portugal.
Fábio Loureiro, 33 (‘recaptured’ only a month after the jailbreak) is still languishing in Morocco, awaiting the niceties of the extradition process; Shergili Farjiani, caught in Italy is still in Pádua, awaiting the same – and now Rodolfo Lohrmann and Mark Roscaleer are in prison cells in Alicante, awaiting their return to Portugal.
According to reports, this may be ‘faster’ than with the two others.
Correio da Manhã today describes how the pair was run to ground at a service station in Alicante. They were both ‘integrated’ within a criminal group where Roscaleer had a gang before he was arrested and jailed in Portugal.
“They did not always travel around together”, says the paper. But yesterday morning, they were both travelling in a Porsche, when Spanish authorities approached them.
One was armed, but there does not appear to have been any ‘unpleasantness’.
CM explains that Lohrmann only recently celebrated his 60th birthday, and it may have been something to do with this that ‘gave away his location’.
Suffice it to say, authorities in Argentina will be greatly buoyed by Lohrmann’s recapture, as they are still hoping for his extradition back to his home country, to answer charges of kidnapping/ murder and extortion.
The only member of the group to have been recaptured in Portugal – Fernando Ferreira – is now being held for the remainder of his time being bars in Monsanto high security prison. It is here that the other four may eventually end up, once they have been returned to Portugal.
