Manhunt Intensifies for Escaped Moroccan Hitman in Spain

On X (formerly Twitter), the Spanish police have issued a wanted notice for Yousef Mohamed Lehrech alias "El Pastilla", a 20-year-old Moroccan hitman who discreetly escaped from the Alcalá Meco prison center in Madrid last Saturday. They describe him as a 1.88 meter tall young man "extremely dangerous". Photos of the fugitive have also been published on the social network.

The preliminary investigation reveals that Lehrech took advantage of four security flaws to quietly exit the prison through the main gate, reports El Paìs. According to the images from the prison’s video surveillance system, "he blended in with a group of people who had come to visit other inmates." The prison officers and civil guards would have shown negligence. The investigation opened on this escape is ongoing.

"El Pastilla" was arrested in Algeciras in April during an attempt to flee to Ceuta, reports the Spanish newspaper. He had been detained in the Botafuegos prison in Algeciras before being transferred in early December to the Alcalá-Meco prison for inmates under 21 years old. He is accused of having shot his former boss, a known drug baron nicknamed Tayena, in the abdomen at the victim’s home in Los Cortijillos, Cadiz, on April 12, 2023. A crime he admitted to the Guardia Civil during his arrest.

He also claimed to have thrown the weapon he used to kill his former boss into the sea. On Tayena’s orders, Lehrech would have killed an Algeciras port worker in October 2022. The Moroccan hitman is also linked to a shootout that occurred earlier this year in a neighborhood in Ceuta between rival drug trafficking gangs, according to the Spanish police.