An Albanian burglar escaped from prison for the fourth time over the weekend, raising concerns about the safeguards in place at the maximum security Opera prison in Milan.
Toma Taulant, alias Admir Dedinca, previously escaped from Lantin prison near Liège, and before that, broke out of two Italian prisons – Terni (2009) and Parma (2013).
Taulant, 41, used a tried-and-tested method to escape from Opera prison, sawing through iron bars and using knotted bed sheets to lower himself from his cell window in the early hours of Sunday morning. He subsequently scaled a six-metre high wall before running to freedom.
According to Euronews, Opera prison held 1,338 inmates in 918 spaces on the day of the escape – implying serious overcrowding. Gennarino De Fazio, secretary general of penitentiary police union UILPA, told the outlet that there are only 533 prison officers employed at the jail when “at least 811 are needed”
Taulant was serving a sentence for robbery, and is not set to be released until October 2048. Italian police have launched a manhunt to track him down.
Taulant's Belgian escape
His previous escape attempts were remarkable for their audacity. He used the same saw-and-sheet method during his first successful prison break in 2009, but during his 2013 escape from Lantin prison, he changed his approach.
That time, he asked his fellow inmates to form a human pyramid in the prison yard, then climbed to the top and scrambled onto the external wall.
Taulant might be an accomplished escape artist, but isn’t so gifted when it comes to evading capture. Police have always managed to track him down before long.
According to The Times, following the 2009 escape, Italian police caught him the following year in a Milan apartment “surrounded by stolen jewels and credit cards”.
After the 2013 escape, Italian police launched a 40-day manhunt for Taulant before finding out he had been arrested in Belgium.
