It 'ended at 2.50 tonight the escape of Francesco Adragna, who Friday morning had escaped from the court of Trapani where he had been taken from the prison of Agrigento for a hearing.
The fugitive was tracked down by the Penitentiary Police and the Carabinieri in the countryside of Trapani, between Xitta and Paceco, while he was meeting with his partner.
Adragna, with a record for robbery and escape from house arrest, had escaped undisturbed from the Palace of Justice, where he had been taken from the prison of Agrigento to attend the hearing of the trial in which he was accused of theft.
He had evaded the surveillance of the agents succeeding, through the emergency stairs, to gain the exit, after crossing some rooms in the basement, used as an archive. The images taken by the surveillance cameras had documented the various sequences of the escape, immortalizing the detainee in overalls as he leaps beyond the railing that delimits the Palace of Justice.
The agents scoured all the neighborhoods and places where the fugitive could have found support in the city. Numerous searches were carried out, as well as checkpoints and patrols in the center and in the suburbs. The pressure exerted led the wanted man's wife to move, in person, to help her husband who needed logistical support.
The woman then reached the fugitive in the Trapani countryside to bring him basic necessities. As soon as the wanted man got into his car, the blitz was triggered. The 35-year-old tried again to escape, but was blocked by the agents who, after the ritual formalities, brought him back to prison.
Handle
The escape of the detainee from the court of Trapani
"We congratulate the women and men of the Penitentiary Police, starting with those of the Central Investigative Unit and its Sicilian articulation, but also to all the others involved in the research and in general to the police who ensured the capture of the escapee", commented Gennarino De Fazio, secretary general of the Uilpa Penitentiary Police, Who complained about "enormous system dysfunctions, with deficiencies of all kinds and unworkable provisions that if you tried to apply would paralyze every activity".
"The void in the workforce must be reduced - says De Fazio - which only for the Penitentiary Police amounts to 18 thousand units, they need equipment updated to the times and adapted to the current criminal levels, modern operational protocols are needed and we cannot continue to give up training and professional updating".