By FRANCIS JOSEPH
Imagine you escape from detention. One would have thought that an escapee would go into hiding.
Not Venezuelan Jose Britto. He walked casually on a main road, so it was not surprising that law enforcement officials who know him, would recognize the wanted fugitive.
Officers of the National Operations Task Force on patrol captured Britto more than one month after he escaped from the Immigration Detention Centre, Aripo.
Around 3 pm on Saturday, a party of officers from the National Operations Task Force was conducting an exercise along Moonan Road, Wallerfield, when they spotted Britto walking along the road.
Britto was recognized by the officers as one of the persons who escaped from the Immigration Detention Centre on Saturday 18.
The officers stopped, identified themselves as police officers and cautioned Britto. He was arrested and conveyed to the Arima Police Station, where an interpreter was provided before he was interviewed.
Britto was subsequently charged with Escaping Lawful Custody and two counts of Assaulting a Police Officer.
His matter is scheduled to be heard before the Court on Monday.
THE GREAT ESCAPE
On July 18, 14 Venezuelans escaped from the Immigration Detention Centre, but six were recaptured almost immediately.
According to police reports, the incident occurred at about 3.40 p.m. when a detention officer on sentry duty detected smoke coming from the Male Housing Unit and alerted a supervisor.
The two officers entered the housing unit to investigate but were confronted by a group of male detainees who assaulted and overpowered them before pushing open a gate and fleeing the facility.
Police said the detainees escaped along the western corridor, exited the compound and fled over the southern perimeter fence. An alarm was raised immediately and law enforcement officers responded.
Four of the escapees were recaptured within minutes – two held while attempting to scale the perimeter fence and two apprehended in the vicinity of the fence outside the compound.
A fifth detainee was arrested at about 6.40 a.m. the following day by ASP Rampallard of the Air Support Unit and officers of the Northern North Task Force along the Eastern Main Road, Wallerfield. He was returned to the Immigration Detention Centre. A sixth was later recaptured.
The seven detainees still being sought are Luis Brito, Roimer Duran, Edison Monroy, Felix Espanol, Edison La Rosa, Evereth Ramirez and Ernesto Jose Figuera Caicedo.
