The attack lasted barely two minutes. Two minutes of incredible violence. Tuesday, around 11 a.m., an over-armed and obviously very well-informed commando attacked a prison administration convoy to allow Mohamed Amra, 30, to escape. Two officers died in a deluge of fire, three others were seriously injured. As quickly as they appeared at the Incarville toll gate, in Eure, the attackers and the detainee vanished into thin air.
In France, escapes are extremely rare and often much less spectacular. Generally, detainees escape during an outing, from an integration workshop or hide in a vehicle. According to the Ministry of Justice, 10 detainees were released in 2021, 13 in 2022 and 15 from January to October 2023.
Figures to which must be added, each year, around 700 prisoners briefly considered as “escaped”, either because they arrived late after a leave, did not return in the evening despite their semi-liberty regime, escaped in police custody… “The word “escape” covers a much more important legal reality than that which comes to mind of the general public”, specifies a judicial source. In the vast majority of cases, escapees are caught within the hours or days that follow, some sometimes surrendering themselves.
Spectacular escape, rough ride
But a spectacular escape does not always rhyme with a meticulously prepared escape. In July 2018, repeat robber Rédoine Faïd escaped by helicopter from the ultra-secure Réau prison (Seine-et-Marne). Accomplices took a pilot hostage, pushed him to land in the main courtyard of the establishment: while one stood guard, another sawed the locks of the establishment with a grinder. In less than 10 minutes, Rédoine Faïd was free. But his run only lasted 93 days: the man was arrested in an apartment in Creil, a few steps from where he grew up. In 2013, the king of beauty had already escaped by blowing up five doors of the Lille-Sequedin penitentiary center. He was arrested a month and a half later.
“His escape was very professional, he probably spent days and days studying every detail, spotting the flaws. On the other hand, his escape was much less so,” analyzed last year the former head of the national fugitive search brigade, Commissioner Christophe Foissey. The fugitive lived from hideout to hideout, moving hidden under a burqa.
A “successful” run – which lasts, therefore – generally rhymes with a significant financial base: the money makes it possible to finance logistics, vehicles, rentals… But this is not always enough. Thus, Antonio Ferrara, who escaped from Fresnes (Val-de-Marne) in 2003 thanks to accomplices disguised as police officers, was caught four months later. And this despite a team responsible for protecting him and his physical metamorphosis: redone nose, blonde dye, beard net…
Fatal routine
Mohamed Amra’s run, initiated on Tuesday, promises to be all the more difficult as a major force is now on his trail and those of his accomplices. In the hours following the attack, some 200 gendarmes, a GIGN team and a helicopter crisscrossed the region. This massive plan was finally lifted at the end of the day: from now on, the research is oriented by the investigation. Analysis of DNA, telephone numbers, bank accounts… So many elements which should make it possible to identify leads. His entourage and his habits are dissected in an attempt to trace them back to him.
This is how investigators proceeded to trace Yvan Colonna, accused of the murder of prefect Claude Erignac, in Corsica in 1998. He did not benefit from a solid financial base but from an unshakeable solidarity network. . This is how he was able to spend 1,503 days holed up in the bush. Monitoring his family’s habits eventually allowed Raid to realize that the family was regularly dropping off packages to a shipping company that took them to a campsite. The manager then took them to the mountain. From spinning to spinning, they identify a small house guarded by dogs. This is where the Corsican nationalist is hiding.
For Rédoine Faïd, it was the analysis of her telephony which was decisive: the investigators sifted through thousands of lines, with the aim of identifying her means of communication. The robber is extremely suspicious, his phone is always turned off; but his relatives, less experienced in banditry, made some mistakes. This is one of the difficulties of being on the run: the more accomplices there are, the greater the risks.
Flight abroad
And what about fleeing abroad? Investigators agree that this allows the fugitive to gain time. You still have to manage to cross the border. Above all, it does not constitute the alpha and omega of the run: international collaboration is increasingly efficient, and fugitives are regularly arrested in the four corners of the planet.
Some, however, manage to slip through the cracks: Albert Spaggiari, who robbed the Société Générale in Nice in 1976, died on the run after twelve years in South America. An exception from another time.