HIGH CRIMES

French Gangster Eludes Police After Helicopter Prison Break

The car chase ended when police found the vehicle full of explosives and no sign of the men.

A French gangster who escaped from prison via helicopter weeks ago was able to avoid police capture Wednesday after he sped away from officials attempting to check his vehicle that was full of explosives. Redoine Faid broke out of prison on July 1 after his accomplices hijacked a helicopter, and he was only seen again when police were checking “a suspicious vehicle waiting near a gas station in the Paris suburb of Piscop.” As police approached, Faid and another man sped off in the car—prompting a car chase that ended with the vehicle left behind in an underground parking lot with no sign of the men. Police say that they found “six packages of plastic explosives and fake license plates in the car trunk,” and they believe the two men fled by staircase. Faid, a career criminal, was in jail serving a 25-year sentence for a botched robbery in which a policewoman was killed. He also escaped prison for six weeks in 2013.