“The escapee from the Vale de Judeus Prison Establishment, Mark Cameron Roscaleer, recaptured in Alicante, Spain, by the Spanish National Police on February 6, was today handed over to the Judicial Police (PJ) by the Spanish authorities, at the Police and Customs Cooperation Center in Caia/Badajoz”, said the PJ in a statement.

According to the PJ, Roscaleer was taken to a prison in the early afternoon to serve his nine-year sentence, which began on May 10, 2019, to which he was sentenced “for the practice of especially violent crimes: robbery with a firearm and kidnapping”.

The escape from Vale de Judeus prison took place on September 7, 2024. The five escapees have since been recaptured.

In February, along with Mark Roscaleer, Rodolfo Lohrman, a 59-year-old Argentine citizen who remains in Spanish territory, was also arrested in Alicante. He opposed extradition to Portugal, asking to return to Argentina and serve the remainder of his sentence there.

Fernando Ferreira, recaptured in November in the municipality of Montalegre, is also back in a Portuguese prison.

The Georgian fugitive, Shergili Farjiani, recaptured in Italy in December, will have to serve his sentence in that country, according to the Attorney General's Office (PGR).

The Georgian detainee who was found by Italian authorities in Padua, northern Italy, “is responsible before Italian justice”, added the PGR, and, therefore, “must serve his sentence” in Italy.

Even though the arrest was not a crime in progress, Shergili Farjiani, the third fugitive from Vale de Judeus to be found, was already part of “criminal groups that commit crimes against property”, as Luís Neves, national director of the Judicial Police, explained a day after the arrest. If this criminal context exists in Italy, he will have to answer to the justice system in this country.

Fábio Loureiro, who was arrested in Morocco in October last year, is awaiting an “administrative/political” decision from Morocco before he can be extradited to Portugal.

According to the PGR, “the court [in that country] ruled in favour of extradition in the judicial phase” at the end of November 2024.

However, in Morocco, after the judicial phase, there is still an administrative phase, which is not yet completed. “Information is awaited regarding the decision that will be made in the aforementioned administrative/political phase,” the PGR clarified in March.

The answer has not yet been decided, “despite the insistence that the attorney general, as the central authority on criminal matters, has been making in this regard,” he added.

These five prisoners escaped from Vale de Judeus prison on September 7, 2024 and their escape led the Minister of Justice to order an audit of the security of Portuguese prisons and also led to the removal of the then general director of the General Directorate of Reinsertion and Prison Services, Rui Abrunhosa Gonçalves, who was replaced on an interim basis by Isabel Leitão, with the new general director, Orlando Carvalho, having been appointed in the meantime.

When they escaped, the five prisoners were serving sentences of between seven and 25 years in prison for drug trafficking, criminal association, robbery, kidnapping and money laundering, among other crimes.

Related article: