Fábio Fernandes Santos Loureiro, 34 years old, known as Fábio “Cigano”, is one of the five inmates who on Saturday, September 7, escaped from the Vale de Judeus prison, in Alcoentre.
Born in the social housing estate of Poço Partido, in the Union of Parishes of Lagoa and Carvoeiro, Fábio Loureiro was arrested in Odemira in 2012, having been sentenced to 25 years in prison, for the crimes of trafficking of minor quantities, criminal association, extortion, money laundering, injury, qualified theft, resistance and coercion of an employee and driving without a legal license.
On Saturday, when the escape was discovered, the social housing estate where Fábio grew up and lived was combed through by the PJ and GNR.
According to the newspaper Público, Fábio had also previously been sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for burglaries in homes in the Algarve, but had been released pending the decision of an appeal.
«Years of evading justice would be left behind, with Fábio “Cigano” — the nickname he was known by in the region where he grew up — always escaping between the raindrops, sometimes due to lack of evidence, sometimes because others took the blame», adds the newspaper.
Fábio was targeted by the authorities “when he rose to the leadership of a youth gang”, after the first leader was arrested in Spain.
Fábio “Cigano” drove luxury cars and was always armed with a Kalashnikov automatic rifle. He even fired a machine gun at a house in Albufeira, where there was a six-month-old baby, to settle a score.
Fábio Loureiro has been caught in the police net many times and has managed to escape many times. In 2011, he was arrested after being caught in an operation to combat drug trafficking, but was released because a friend claimed that the 11 kilos of hashish seized were his and not Fábio's.
On other occasions, the evidence the authorities had against the fugitive proved to be circumstantial and weak.
In addition to Fábio Loureiro, another Portuguese escaped from the Vale de Judeus prison, Fernando Ribeiro Ferreira, 61 years old, sentenced to 25 years for the crimes of drug trafficking, criminal association, theft, robbery and kidnapping; the Argentine Rodolfo José Lohrmann, 59 years old, sentenced to 18 years and 10 months for the crimes of criminal association, theft, robbery, false declarations and money laundering, wanted for other crimes in Argentina and Bulgaria; Mark Cameron Roscaleer, 39 years old, British, sentenced to 9 years for the crimes of kidnapping and robbery; and Shergili Farjiani, 40 years old, Georgian, sentenced to 7 years for the crimes of theft, violence after theft and forgery of documents.
Yesterday, at a joint press conference in Lisbon, Luís Neves, national director of the Judicial Police, highlighted the danger that the fugitives represent, classifying them as violent and stating that they will not hesitate to kill in order to remain free.
“We are talking about very violent people,” he said, adding that the prisoners “will do anything to remain free,” even putting the lives of others at risk. “The human life factor is at stake,” he warned, reiterating the “degree of complexity and violence” of the men.
Therefore, the national director of the PJ launched an appeal: “I ask the population to completely refrain from having any contact with these people. If you have any information, use the normal channels. In other words, 112.”
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