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Reding Faid, a French gangster who escaped from prison with a hijacked helicopter in July, has been recaptured, police sources said.
The most wanted fugitive in the country, he was arrested north of Paris with his brother and two men.
Faid, 46, is a fan of gangster movies that he has learned to teach him to lead raids.
He was arrested for the first time in 1998 for armed robbery. The July 1st jailbreak was his second and most dramatic escape.
It was extracted from a prison in Réle, south-east of Paris, by three heavily armed men who broke into the visitors' room. They then embarked on a helicopter piloted by a flight instructor who had been taken hostage.
- A story of dramatic prisons escapes
Faïd was serving a 25-year prison sentence for organizing a robbery in which a policewoman was murdered in 2010.
It was resumed Wednesday in the early hours of the city of Creil.
The French Minister of Justice, Nicole Belloubet, told Europe 1 radio: "We will place him in a high security center where he will be watched very closely."
The arrest comes hours after the resignation of Interior Minister Gerard Collomb – the country's top law enforcement official – a further setback for President Emmanuel Macron.
The Minister of the Interior will be temporarily led by Prime Minister Philippe.
Who is Redon Faid?
Born in 1972, he grew up in Creil. In the 1990s, he led a gang involved in armed robbery and extortion.
He said that Hollywood films, such as the Al Pacino thriller, Scarface, had inspired his lifestyle and some of his projects.
During an attack on a safety van in 1997, he used, along with his accomplices, an ice hockey goalie mask, mimicking Robert de Niro's gang in Heat.
He then stated that he had watched this film "hundreds of times" on DVD and told his director, Michael Mann, at a film festival in Paris: "You were my technical advisor" .
A 2009 book describing his youth in the streets of Paris and his descent into the life of a professional criminal contributed to his fame.
This earned him the nickname "The Writer" – or "the writer" – among the French police.
Chronology of a jailbreaker
- Faid's imprisonment and escape cycle began with his arrest in 1998 for armed robbery and bank robbery.
- In 2009, he was conditionally released, swearing that he was a changed man – but in 2011, he had violated his release conditions and was back behind bars.
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In 2013, he escaped from a prison near Lille, using explosives to fight his way through five prison gates while holding guards hostage in the form of human shields.
- In 2017, Faïd was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for this jailbreak. He was also sentenced to 18 years of animation for the 2010 robbery.
- In 2018, following an unsuccessful appeal, Faïd was sentenced to a heavier penalty of 25 years.