By IANS/EFE,
Lima : Police captured the last two prisoners still at large from a group of 17 who escaped last weekend from Challapalca prison in southern Peru, the Interior Ministry announced Thursday in a communique.
Without providing additional details of the capture, the document said that within “the framework of the directives given for the fight against crime, the government is carrying out the necessary measures to provide security and calm to the population”.
Early Sunday, 17 inmates escaped from the Challapalca prison, located in a very rugged Andean area, with the help of accomplices who waited for them outside the facility in two trucks.
Authorities arrested two prison guards for allegedly collaborating in the escape in exchange for money and it is conducting an investigation of the other 11 guards.
In an operation in which 3,000 police officers and a number of army personnel were deployed throughout the country, the majority of the fugitives were captured near the border with Bolivia.
One of the prisoners was found dead Tuesday under circumstances that remain to be investigated.
Among the first group of escapees captured Monday was Jose Torres, a convicted murderer.