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Organized Crime Suspect Captured After 6-Month Manhunt Following Armed Jailbreak
Thursday 25 July 2019, by
Incarcerated since September 26, 2017, for armed robbery, aggravated theft and criminal conspiracy, Lofti Boussouak managed to escape from the Béziers Penitentiary Center on January 28 last, thanks to the intervention of an armed commando, in front of the Tarascon Courthouse, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. This 27-year-old man from Nîmes, whose profile is described as "organized crime", has just been arrested this Thursday, July 25, 2019, in the morning, in a town near Alès.
His spectacular escape had fascinated many. Aided by several accomplices, Lofti Boussouak had pulled off his coup and had been on the run for just over six months. But this Thursday, July 25, the 27-year-old man was apprehended in the Gard, a town near Alès.
On January 28, 2019, as he was being escorted by three prison administration officers, a commando of two "heavily armed" criminals had burst in near the Courthouse, recalls France Tv Info. They managed to injure the two officers and leave with the detainee, the media points out, noting that this escape had been filmed by cameras at the Tarascon Courthouse.
Lofti Boussouak has a heavy criminal record: armed robbery, aggravated theft and criminal conspiracy. To this are added the new charges against him. He is "being prosecuted in four cases and would notably be the author of several car thefts with violence, committed in Aix-en-Provence and Tarascon," notes the same source. The Tarascon Public Prosecutor, Patrick Desjardins, is not mistaken about the profile of the defendant, whose criminal record bears 14 mentions: "This is an ’organized crime’ profile and not a radicalized detainee," the lawyer said.
It should be noted that several other individuals are incarcerated in this case and searches are continuing at Lofti Boussouak’s home, who, moreover, risks a heavy sentence.