The Spanish Civil Guard has blockaded the border with Portugal in southern Galicia. The extraordinary measure comes after a shocking prison break in Portugal.
Five prisoners with violent histories, including one Briton, are now on the run and there are fears that the fugitives could try to escape across the border into Spain. Authorities in Portugal have warned that the fugitives are “capable of killing to remain free”.
The Spanish police have set up patrols to monitor border crossings into the Spanish provinces of Pontevedra and Ourense. The police have also distributed the identities and photographs of the escapees. Alerts have also been sent to towns across Salamanca, Badajoz, Huelva and Zamora.
Meanwhile, Portuguese police are investigating how the prison break occurred, including several surveillance errors at a highly guarded prison.
Rui Abrunhosa, the Director-General of Prison Services, slammed the incidental at Vale de Judeus Prison as a “serious security failure”.
Frederico Morais, the president of the prison guards’ union, said: “What failed here is the Portuguese state, due to the lack of guards and investment. Security is at stake.”
The prison, just north of Lisbon, houses 507 inmates, with 50 surveillance posts monitoring the prisoners. However, at the time of the escape, only 33 of these posts were staffed.
Only one prison guard was responsible for monitoring 200 surveillance cameras. The Vale de Judeus prison has also been without a director for four months.
The five escaped prisoners – Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira, Rodolf José Lohrmann, Mark Cameron Roscaleer, Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro, and Shergili Farjiani – have been on the run since Saturday.
Mark Roscaleer, a British inmate, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for kidnap and robbery, according to Portuguese media.
Argentine Rodolfo Lohrman had recently been transferred to the facility from another higher-security one and is thought to be “the most dangerous” out of the five.
The inmates, some of them serving 25-year sentences, were in prison over offences including drug trafficking, criminal association, theft, robbery and kidnapping.
It is thought that the five prisoners had help from at least three unidentified individuals from organised crime to escape from prison.
The men, aged between 33 and 61, had “external help through the launch of a ladder, which allowed the inmates to scale the wall and access the outside,” according to Portuguese media.
Both Spanish and Portuguese have warned that finding the fugitives will be complex and warned the public not to expect a quick resolution.
The police warned that the organised crime which helped the prisoners escape could give them access to properties to hide in or even a port where they board a ship that takes them to another continent.