Prosecutors pointed out that staff at the Opera prison were in the middle of a shift change when Tomo executed his escape. This is not the first time Tomo has tested the limits of European prisons. The incident has renewed criticism of the overwhelmed Italian prison system, which unions say has made securing even high-security wings more difficult. Italian authorities are scrambling to track down the man after he escaped from a high-security wing at Milan's Opera prison over the weekend, marking his fourth successful breakout. But that didn't last long, as he managed to flee from Belgian custody a few months later, adding a new chapter to a file that now spans two countries. In Milan, investigators are now reviewing surveillance camera footage from the Opera prison to see if Tomo received any help from the outside. He was later found to have already been arrested in Belgium and was being held in Liège awaiting extradition. Police deployed patrols and checkpoints and tightened border controls within hours, fearing that the 41-year-old Albanian inmate, Taulant Tomo, might try to leave the country before he was found. Tomo, whom the Italian press has dubbed the 'escape artist', pulled off his latest escape on Saturday, using a tried-and-true method that still seems closer to Hollywood than to reality. He then scaled a six-meter wall and disappeared into the darkness. The man's sentence for theft and other crimes runs until October 2028, which might explain his insistence on slipping through 'tight security' loopholes. According to Euronews, he reportedly cut the bars of his cell using a hacksaw he stole from the prison workshop and then climbed an outer wall using a primitive rope system made from knotted bed sheets. He added that the situation 'violates the basic human rights of prisoners' and puts 'prison police officers in a very difficult test'. But his most famous escape was in February 2013 when he fled from a high-security wing in Parma along with his fellow inmate Famin Frokai. The Opera prison held 1,338 inmates in facilities built for 918 at the time of the escape, while only 533 officers were on duty, despite a need for at least 811 to ensure the prison runs smoothly. Gennarino Di Vazio, the general secretary of the prison police union (UILPA), said the latest incident once again reveals deep structural failures, stating: 'This recurring loop, together with the tragedies experienced daily in prisons, confirms the failure of prison policies that governments have pursued for at least the last 25 years'. He first escaped from a prison in Terni in 2009. Frokai was later killed by a jeweler during a home robbery in 2015. After the Parma escape in 2013, it took police 40 full days to track down Tomo.
