Xhevdet Plaku, 44, had been taking the bins out at Barcaglione prison in Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy on January when he suddenly vanished for hours, according to authorities
An international manhunt has been launched for a murderous drug trafficker who escaped prison while taking the bins out.
According to Italian authorities, the incident took place at Barcaglione prison in Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy, on January 24 but the escaped prison reportedly went unnoticed for hours. Albanian citizen Xhevdet Plaku, 44, aka ‘Achille’ or ‘Akili’ (‘Achilles’), disappeared into thin air while he was going to throw out the rubbish outside the prison, a freedom he reportedly enjoyed thanks to some legal benefits and good behaviour in his cell.
The man had left the prison gates at around 8.30 am to throw out the rubbish after emptying the bins, a job he had been assigned to do. But instead of returning, he disappeared and it was only at 11 am, during routine checks, that the prison authorities noticed his absence.
The alarm was raised immediately and a manhunt was launched, first in the vicinity of the prison and then extended to the entire city with the distribution of his name and photo to all law enforcement agencies. Plaku was reportedly set to have a bail hearing in February and it is currently unclear what prompted him to escape and run the risk of seeing his sentence lengthened and his bail denied.
The authorities are still looking for the escaped convict, who has two murder convictions and drug trafficking convictions. He had reportedly used 25 different identities and was accused of being the head of an international drug trafficking organisation based in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.
The manhunt comes after a drug cartel kingpin who survived two assassination attempts has been arrested in the UK after his blundering wife gave away key details in photos of her £16,000 holiday. Luis Grijalba, 43, was wanted in the US on charges of exporting cocaine from Costa Rica and had arrived in London to celebrate the New Year with wife Estefania McDonald Rodriguez.
However, American Drug Enforcement Administration agents had been tracking her social media posts about visits to the UK and Paris. In one post, Grijalba and his wife, seen in a cream fur-collared coat, were pictured in front of the Eiffel Tower. The couple then travelled to the UK where Grijalba was spotted near London Bridge. National Crime Agency officers were able to swoop in and arrest the drug baron. Randall Zúñiga, from Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency, said Grijalba often travelled abroad separately from his wife but appeared to be too relaxed this time.
He said: “His wife travelled out of the country a lot and posted about it on social media. They went to Colombia and Europe a lot. They had recorded several trips. “She uploaded a lot of photos. The DEA had been following Grijalba for several months and were waiting for the international arrest warrant to be ready.
“They informed us of the arrest, but it was their job. There was no open case in Costa Rica for which he could be arrested.” Some of the social media posts from Estefania showed her outside luxury hotels, iconic landmarks, and posing with parrots on a beach. Grijalba, who is contesting extradition to the US, saw his case adjourned until next month.
