Prison officer arrested for prison break

A corrections officer is among four people arrested in St. Lucia in connection with a recent daring prison break.

Two Venezuelans and a St. Lucian escaped from the Bordelais Correctional Facility earlier this month and are still at large.

Local police have described the escapees as armed and dangerous.

The prison break has prompted a review of prison security by a team from the Organisation of American States, the United States and the UK.

The correctional officer, who joined the service in 2003, was arrested during a raid on a fishing village near the Bordelais Correctional Facility.

The other three persons, believed to be the officer’s accomplices, were also arrested on suspicion of having aided the escapees.

St. Lucian authorities have long suspected that the prison break was an inside job facilitated by Venezuelan drug money.

This month’s jail break was made through three layers of security fencing as convicts gathered in the recreation yard.

Police Commissioner Vernon Francois, has indicated that all the escapees have managed to flee the country.

“We have some intelligence that we’re working with which suggests that they’re out of St. Lucia, so we’re working with our international counterparts. Notwithstanding that, we’re still following some local leads,” he said.

The Government has promised that an independent commission of enquiry would be carried out into the prison break.

It blames the escape in part on poor quality materials from which the prison fences were made and the absence of walls around the facility.

(Source: The BBC Caribbean Service)