10 October 2023 , 07:37
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A manhunt is underway in Spain for two men who pistol-whipped police as they tried to help free a British prisoner who was on a dental visit.
The audacious prison break attempt occurred around 11am yesterday in the heart of Ibiza Town, when two masked individuals intercepted police officers escorting an unnamed inmate from a private dental surgery to the van he had been transported in.
An all-ports alert was out for the pair today after they fled empty-handed following a struggle and torched their getaway car on a rural road nearby. The man they tried to help escape, captured after a failed attempt to run in the opposite direction, was being quizzed by detectives today as they sought to close the net on his accomplices.
Police sources confirmed this morning the unnamed prisoner is from the UK. One local report today described him as a fugitive from British justice who had been held two months ago at a villa in San Jose in the south-west of Ibiza on an international arrest warrant issued by the UK authorities.
Police are searching for the two men who were in the car (SOLARPIX.COM)Respected Ibizan paper Diario de Ibiza said Britain was trying to get him extradited so he could serve a prison sentence there following an earlier conviction, adding: “He is apparently linked to the world of drug trafficking.”
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He is thought to have been on remand at Ibiza Prison on the orders of a judge at Spain’s Audiencia Nacional court in Madrid, which among other things rules on extradition requests. Witnesses have described the attempted escape as being like “something out of a film.” One told a local paper he saw one of the masked men who held up the police pull a gun on the officer and use it to pistol-whip him.
The Civil Guard has not confirmed officially weapons were used but a police source said today: “One of the officers was assaulted with what would appear to be a pistol but until arrests are made and the weapon seized, we won’t be in a position to determine if it was real or fake.”
The wreckage of the vehicle (SOLARPIX.COM)The jail-break attempt ended with the assailants speeding off in a black 4x4, thought to be a Land Rover, and the prisoner being recaptured and taken back to jail. Today he was being questioned in the presence of a lawyer at a Civil Guard station in Ibiza Town.
The gutted remains of a vehicle believed to be the getaway car, said to have been stolen and fitted with false number plates, was being analysed by police forensic experts. It was allegedly set alight on a rural road in the municipality of Santa Eulalia a short drive from the island capital in the early hours of this morning. The alarm was raised around 12.30am.
A spokesman for the Civil Guard, one of two major police forces in Ibiza which is involved in the ongoing manhunt, said today: “I can confirm we are still hunting for two men who tried to help a prisoner escape yesterday in Ibiza Town following a visit to a dentist.
“He was being walked from the dental surgery to a police van when the officers were confronted. The officers managed to resist the attack and the two assailants escaped in a dark-coloured vehicle. The prisoner remains in custody after the attempt to free him failed.”
A Civil Guard source, confirming the man is British, added: “Thankfully none of the officers were injured.” The Audiencia Nacional investigates major crimes such as terrorism, currency forgery, drug trafficking and fraud committed at national level as well as international crimes that come under the competence of Spanish courts.
The police operation to close the net on the assailants will now focus on trying to make sure they are unable to leave Ibiza. The man they tried to help escape is expected to be transferred to a more secure prison on the Spanish mainland once detectives on the island have finished with him.
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