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"A crazy affair": 20 years ago, Antonio Ferrara's spectacular escape from Fresnes prison

2023-03-11T14:41:29.068Z


STORY - On March 12, 2003, the "king of escape" Antonio Ferrara escaped from Fresnes prison, illustrating the flaws in the French prison system.


Twelve minutes.

This is the time it took Antonio Ferrara, helped by his accomplices, to escape from Fresnes prison on March 12, 2003, with rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs.

20 years later, this spectacular escape from one of the most secure prisons in France remains etched in our memories.

And all the more so since this is not his first attempt.

Antonio Ferrara, multi-recidivist robber, accumulates blows as well as convictions.

"The King of Beauty" won its second star on this famous March 12, 2003, four years after escaping for the first time from Fleury-Mérogis prison, in Essonne, in 1998. Back to the incredible escape of el “

Nino

”.

“A crazy affair”

A figure of French organized crime, Antonio Ferrara was born on October 12, 1973 in Cassino, Italy.

He grew up in Choisy-le-Roi, in the Paris suburbs, and fell into delinquency at the age of 18.

Convicted for the first time at the age of 21, he then switches definitively to "grand crime".

Antonio Ferrara was part of a new generation of French thugs at that time

,

and in particular the so-called “city” thugs, who arrived on the organized crime market,

explains to Le

Figaro

Brendam Kennet, author of A

ntonio Ferrara, the king of beauty (

Cherche-Midi editions, 2012

).

Before the escape from Fresnes, el Nino was not yet thirty years old and was already putting the police in trouble.

“The attacks of armored vans and the robberies of banks on his initiative accumulate: Antonio Ferrara is arrested in 1998, but escapes by taking advantage of a transfer to the hospital of Corbeil-Essonnes.

His escape lasted four years, until July 13, 2002, and earned him a first stripe of "

king of escape

".

On September 5, 2002, Antonio Ferrara had just been transferred to Fresnes prison.

The day before, he was still imprisoned in the prison of Health, but explosives had been discovered in his cell.

Foiled plan or desired transfer?

According to Malek Bouabbas, protagonist in the operation and author of

The Escape from Fresnes

(Don Quichotte editions, 2012)

,

everything was meticulously prepared.

Bouabbas, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for complicity, explains in his book the long meetings with his accomplices, close to Antonio Ferrara for several years, to prepare this "crazy

affair

".

The accomplices had considered all the possibilities of escape when Antonio Ferrara was still imprisoned in the prison of Health, considered too difficult to access.

And finally decide: "

he must change prison

".

Two days later, it's done: Antonio is transferred to Fresnes.

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The long locations follow one another, the weapons and the cars are soon acquired, the accomplices recruited.

Antonio Ferrara follows these preparations from his cell.

The date is quickly fixed, it will be March 12, 2003, in the night.

Two days before, "

Succo

" had caused an incident by refusing to be searched after a visit from his lawyer.

What had been worth to him to be sent to the “

mitard

”, isolated place within the prison.

The Italian had managed to hide there, without the knowledge of the prison guards, a mobile phone, a large piece of plastic and detonators.

Doubt still hangs over the identity of its supplier: it could probably be Hocine Kroziz, a bribed supervisor from Fresnes - he will be sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2011.

It all started at 4:30 am, a cold night in March 2003. A gang of about ten hooded and gloved men, equipped with jackets or armbands stamped "Police" appeared in front of the doors of the remand center.

These fake policemen quickly blow their cover: equipped with handguns, 7.2 mm caliber assault rifles, two thugs open fire on the two watchtowers.

The guards who are perched there, protected by armored glass, are not affected.

In return, they manage to wound one of the attackers, who will leave his eye there.

Four months of frantic escape

At the same time, the second team of this commando blew up the steel gate with a charge.

The breach caused in the wall allows the gang to rush into the prison, and quickly blows up the second surrounding wall.

Everything was calculated, millimetered

”, confided in 2003 a prison supervisor to

Figaro.

Antonio Ferrara, who is waiting for them in his cell on the ground floor, breaks down the bars of his cell and joins his accomplices.

The commando also thought of creating a diversion and slowing down the first patrols by setting fire to six vehicles parked 300 meters from the prison walls.

Ferrara and his accomplices quickly flee, jump into three different vehicles and take off.

The run lasts four months, and the police mobilize impressive means to track the trail of the “

king of beauty.

» Antonio Ferrara is then considered as «

priority number 2

» of the Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy, - behind Yvan Colonna.

At the time

, recalls Brendam Kemmet,

Antonio's escape

points to the security gaps in these prisons, which are armed to prevent an attack from the sky or from within.

There, Fresnes, reputed to be one of the safest prisons in France, falls under the bullets of a dozen or so guys.

It was inconceivable.

»

From June 15 to 23, 2003, he stayed in Saint-Raphaël, with a team responsible for protecting him, including Malek Bouabbas and Corsicans.

He divides his time between private beaches and nightclubs, before heading to Paris.

He was finally arrested by the Central Office and the repression brigade in a bar opposite the Paris-Bercy omnisport palace, which recognized him despite his redone nose and his blond hair dye.

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The ongoing trial of the assizes of the escape from Fresnes opened under close surveillance on October 2, 2008. Antonio Ferrara was finally sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment, reduced to twelve on appeal.

The "king" was released from prison on July 8, 2022. Several accomplices are also convicted.

El "

Nino

's " former lawyer, Karim Achoui, convicted of complicity at first instance, is acquitted on appeal.

Finally, what were the motivations for such an operation?

According to the police, the large sum of money promised by Ferrara in exchange for his release would have been shared by the members of the commando.

Malek Bouabbas sweeps away these "

nonsense

".

Eleven individuals risked their lives solely out of friendship

,” he insists on the last page of his book.

Everything has a price, except friendship.

»

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-03-11

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