Police Capture Another Fugitive From La Reforma
Another of the eight convicts who escaped Oct. 9 from Costa Rica’s largest prison La Reforma — in Alajuela, northwest of San JosĂ© — was captured by police Saturday in Cartago, east of San JosĂ©, according to a statement from the Public Security Ministry.
The fugitive, identified by the name Douglas QuirĂłs, 48, was hiding in a covered rancho area near a hardware store, the statement said. Residents informed police they had seen him, and Cartago police officers found him early Saturday morning sleeping in the covered area surrounded by newspaper clippings with reports of his and the seven other fugitives’ escape.
Police took QuirĂłs, who faces 44 years in prison and has been convicted of crimes including aggravated robbery and rape, to a prison in Cartago.
His arrest leaves Rafael Herrera as the only one of the eight convicts who escaped from La Reforma who is still at large.
The fugitives broke out of the prison by sawing through their window bars, taking multiple guards hostage and killing another (TT, Oct. 13).
Four of the eight fugitives – Johel Guillermo Araya, Alberto MartĂnez, Johnny RodrĂguez and Freddy GarcĂa — were found in a house in Guácimo, on the Caribbean slope, Oct. 24. GarcĂa was killed during a shootout with police.
Another of the fugitives, Roberto Clark, was arrested two days earlier at the annual Carnival festivities in the Caribbean port town of Limón (TT, Oct. 27), and a sixth inmate, Victor Urbina, surrendered himself to police Oct. 26 in Tres Rios, east of San José (TT, Nov. 3).
-Tico Times