19-year-old inmate captured weeks after escaping French prison with bedsheets

French police on Thursday arrested a second inmate who had escaped from prison at the end of November for cutting cell bars and using sheetssources close to the case told News.

The 19-year-old fugitive, suspected of a drug-related murder attempt, was found in the southern port city of Marseille after Interpol issued a red alert on him, two sources close to the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, told News.

He and another detainee had fled an overcrowded prison in the eastern city of Dijon after cutting the bars of their cells with blades that investigators suspect were delivered by drones.

Police tracked the Marseille native about 310 miles south of the prison to a dilapidated apartment complex in the city’s north, known to be a hotspot for drug trafficking.

His fugitive companion, a 32-year-old man accused of violence against his partner, was arrested one day after his escapewhen police officers pounced on a bar in the town where he was drinking coffee.

The Dijon prosecutor’s office confirmed Thursday’s arrest to News, without offering further details.

France has one of the worst levels of prison overcrowding in Europe, ranking third after Slovenia and Cyprus, according to a Council of Europe report published in July. At the beginning of October, the national average was 135 inmates for every 100 available places. The Dijon prison, built in 1853, is in poor condition, with 311 inmates for 180 places, according to the Ministry of Justice.

“Old-fashioned” blades

The guards realized that the two men had escaped from Dijon prison before dawn.

The 32-year-old had left a message in his cell stating that he had been detained “too long”, according to Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch. It was not immediately clear how long he was detained.

Union leader Ahmed Saih, who represents prison officials at the prison, told News shortly after the escape that inmates were using “old-fashioned manual saw blades” and that several such blades had previously been found.

The saws were likely delivered by drones, Caracotch said after the escape, and several people have already been sentenced for drone deliveries to the same prison.

At the beginning of October, French prisons held 135 inmates for every 100 available places.

The Dijon prison, built in 1853, is in poor condition, with 311 inmates for 180 places, according to the Ministry of Justice.

The week before the escape, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin announced that the Dijon facility would receive $7.3 million as part of a program to eradicate mobile phones from six French prisons.

The prison escape came less than two weeks after another escape in the northwestern city of Rennes. A 37-year-old prisoner, who had more than a year left on his sentence for robbery, fled on November 14 during an excursion with other prisoners to the city’s planetarium. He was later captured in the nearby city of Nantes.

Last year, a boss of one of Italy’s most violent mafias who escaped from a maximum security prison using bedsheets was caught in France, authorities in both countries said Friday. Marco Raduano, described as “dangerous” on Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted criminals, was arrested in Bastia on the French island of Corsica.