Peruvian police capture convict who left twin in his place inside prison cell

Peruvian police on Monday arrested a man who had escaped from a maximum security prison a year earlier after posing as his twin brother, the Interior Ministry reported.

Alexander Delgado, 27, was convicted in 2015 to a 16-year sentence for rape of minors and theft, according to local media.

On January 10, 2017, Delgado received a visit from his twin brother Giancarlo at Ancón I penitentiary in Piedras Gordas (located north of the capital, Lima). The convict allegedly drugged his brother, borrowed his clothes and took his ID, then left him inside his own prison cell and walked out.

It’s unbelievable, in 12 years nobody had escaped from Ancón I

Justice Minister Marisol Pérez Tello

It was several hours before prison workers realized what had happened, according to media reports. Wardens found Giancarlo Delgado lying on the floor of the cell, and when they managed to wake him he explained that he was not Alexander but his twin brother. Fingerprints confirmed this claim.

“It’s unbelievable, in 12 years nobody had escaped from Ancón I,” said Justice Minister Marisol Pérez Tello in statements to La Nación.

The escape cost the prison director, Joel Quezada, his job. Giancarlo Delgado was arrested and investigated for aiding his brother, but prosecutors eventually dropped the charges.

The Interior Ministry included Alexander Delgado on its most wanted list and offered a reward of 20,000 soles (nearly €5,000) to anyone with a lead about his whereabouts.

Carlos Vásquez, head of the National Penitentiary Institute, said that once found Delgado would be transferred to a maximum security prison in Challapalca, located at an altitude of 5,000 meters in southern Peru. Following Delgado’s arrest in Callao, a port city near Lima, it was unclear whether this plan would be carried out.

English version by Susana Urra.