International manhunt launched as murderous drug trafficker vanishes in Italian prison
International manhunt launched as murderous drug trafficker vanishes in Italian prison
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An international manhunt has been launched for a murderous drug trafficker who escaped prison while taking the bins out. According to Italian authorities, the incident took place at Barcaglione prison in Ancona, in the Marche region of Italy, on January 24 but the escaped prison reportedly went unnoticed for hours. Albanian citizen Xhevdet Plaku, 44, aka 'Achille' or 'Akili' ('Achilles'), disappeared into thin air while he was going to throw out the rubbish outside the prison, a freedom he reportedly enjoyed thanks to some legal benefits and good behaviour in his cell.
The man had left the prison gates at around 8.30 am to throw out the rubbish after emptying the bins, a job he had been assigned to do. But instead of returning, he disappeared and it was only at 11 am, during routine checks, that the prison authorities noticed his absence.
The alarm was raised immediately and a manhunt was launched, first in the vicinity of the prison and then extended to the entire city with the distribution of his name and photo to all law enforcement agencies. Plaku was reportedly set to have a bail hearing in February and it is currently unclear what prompted him to escape and run the risk of seeing his sentence lengthened and his bail denied.
The authorities are still looking for the escaped convict, who has two murder convictions and drug trafficking convictions. He had reportedly used 25 different identities and was accused of being the head of an international drug trafficking organisation based in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands.
