Violent prisoner is on run with man who has a $5m bounty on his head

One of the prisoners who escaped a Portuguese prison with "violent" Brit Mark Roscaleer has a $5 million reward on his head. Roscaleer, a career criminal who spent time in HMP Kirkham following a violent burglary in Ellesmere Port in 2012, escaped Vale de Judeu prison in south Portugal on Saturday, September 7.

The 37-year-old was serving a nine-year sentence for kidnap and robbery when he fled the prison 43 miles north of Lisbon. He escaped the high-security prison along with two Portuguese nationals, one Georgian and one Argentinian inmate, all aged between 33 and 61, who had been jailed for multiple violent crimes, according to Portuguese reports.

But last month saw one of the five convicts captured in Morocco, with Portuguese national Fábio Loureiro awaiting extradition back to his home country. More than two months on from the daylight escape, four of the five prisoners remain on the run, with Spanish police announcing they believe they may have fled to the neighbouring country.

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It has been reported by several outlets that the men used a ladder thrown from outside the prison, with the help of three people, before they all fled the scene in a Mercedes and a Volvo. In the days that followed the escape it was revealed that a military-style temporary shelter was found close to the prison. A lawyer for the National Union of Prison Guards claimed it may have been used by accomplices of the prisoners.

In a statement issued to journalists, Pedro Proenca claimed the escapees "must have" stayed the night in the bunker and those who helped them may have military training. Portuguese outlet Sic Noticias labelled the ongoing investigation as "one of the largest operations in Portugal".

It has since been reported that while Roscaleer was waiting to be sentenced he covered himself in baby oil in an attempt to slip through prison bars before guards caught him. But Roscaleer is not the most dangerous of the prisoners to flee, with Rodolfo "El Ruso" Lohrmann being implicated in overseas organised crime gangs that have been linked to kidnappings, extortion and murders across South and Central America.

As a result, a $5m reward is being offered in Argentina for any information that leads to the arrest of the criminal who fled confinement with Roscaleer, El Ciudadano reports. He is wanted in Argentina for a list of brutal crimes, including the kidnap and extortion involving the son of a former Argentine health minister 20 years ago.

When he was initially arrested in 2017, Argentina sought extradition but he remained in Portuguese custody following his sentencing. Following the damning escape by the five prisoners, there has been widespread criticism about the state of the prison system across the country.

The escape from the Portuguese prison has been put down to a lack of security guards and cameras at the prison, with Spanish outlet The Olive Press reporting Luis Neves, national director of the Judicial Police, claiming the group are "very dangerous" and "will do anything to remain free".

As detectives across Europe scramble to find the prisoners, an inquest into the escape has been ongoing in Portugal. On September 26, Sic Noticias reported that the former director of the Prison Services defended in parliament the "pride" and "professionalism" of the guards on duty, adding that 33 guards were on duty at the time of the escape. It has been claimed that the decision to demolish a watchtower in 2017 was a mistake.

European Arrest Warrants (EAW) were issued in the aftermath of the escape, a mechanism which allows an EU member state to request the arrest and surrender of a person from another member state. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed it was aware of reports that a British man escaped from the Portuguese prison but had not been approached to support the search.

The ECHO has previously reported on Roscaleer when he was one of two masked men who threatened to "smash" a person's skull before he and his accomplice snatched more than £6,300 from The Gunners Arms in 2012. The two men hit the pub, on Thornton Road, in the early hours of May 8, 2012, waking the licensees, who were asleep in separate rooms above. Roscaleer donned a balaclava and carried a claw hammer, while his accomplice covered his face with a scarf and armed himself with a knife or screwdriver when they gained access via the first floor.

They demanded that the business partners hand over the contents of their safe, with Roscaleer telling them: "Get a move on or I'll smash your skull in." The raiders were, however, later tracked by police to another pub and found in possession of most of the stolen cash.

While serving his sentence at HMP Kirkham in Lancashire, Roscaleer absconded from his cell in 2015, with a national manhunt being launched to try and trace the wanted inmate. Following appeals from police, Roscaleer handed himself in.