The shambolic reaction by authorities to a jailbreak by three prisoners from Caxias prison near Lisbon last weekend has been partly redeemed by the fact that two of the convicts, both Chileans, are now back behind bars.
Madrid police detained one in Barajas airport on Sunday night – more by chance than any kind of concerted hunt by authorities. And on Wednesday in Barcelona a police heist on a group known at “Lanzas Internacionales” (international lancers) revealed the presence of a second.
According to tabloid Correio da Manhã, the man took refuge with the group of “known Chilean thieves” said to be operating in Europe (click here), after slipping arrest in Madrid on Sunday.
The only prisoner now still ‘on-the-run’ is Luso-Israeli Joaquim Bitton Mattos – but the sloppy way authorities communicated the jailbreak to the country’s various police forces and then on to European counterparts has been highlighted in media stories, suggesting prison guards are now threatening strike action, complaining they simply do not have the manpower to properly run overcrowded jails.
