Yousef Mohamed Lehrech, alias El Pastilla, possibly the most wanted fugitive in Spain – due to the media coverage of his escape from the Alcalá Meco prison (Madrid) on Christmas Eve – feared for his life in the Algeciras prison. The young man was worried because he was certain that some member of his rival gang (Los Piolines) and those of his own gang (Los Tayena) who were inmates in the same prison would end up killing him for having swung between both organizations.
El Pastilla had played with fire, no one knew which clan he belonged to or who he had betrayed. He was in no man’s land and asked for help because he did not know his enemies. The young man verbalized his fear to the workers at the Algeciras penitentiary center on several occasions. He was afraid of being murdered. This is the only time that he has expressed his feelings in prison since he was admitted in April for killing his boss for money and mistakenly murdering a 26-year-old young man in Algeciras.
Yousef Mohamed Lehrech lived scared, so the director of the Cadiz prison, prison sources consulted by this newspaper reveal, decided to apply article 75.2 to him. This article provides for the possibility that the director of the penitentiary center, in certain circumstances, at the request of the inmate or on his own initiative, agrees on measures that imply limitations that, ultimately, translate into protective measures.
This is how the young man sought by the State Security Forces and Corps ended up in solitary confinement with much more restrictive outings to the yard and with fewer prisoners, making it easier for officials to control the situation. He felt safe. He remained like this for several months until, within this halo of custody, it was decided to transfer him to the Alcalá Meco prison, far from Algeciras and the presence of rivals inside the prison. There he was integrated into the Education and Respect Module (MEC), a section in which prisoners whose behavior is very good coexist. It is about another life inside prison based on organization, respect and exquisite coexistence. The prison sources consulted understand that, perhaps, El Pastilla was integrated into the MEC because of his age, under 21 years of age. He was in prison under the FIES 5 regime, one of the most restrictive, awaiting trial.
Investigators believe he may have already fled to Morocco.
A large sector of prison workers does not understand the reason why the young man was transferred to Alcalá Meco and not to Estremera, a more modern prison, with greater security systems and more prepared to house and treat inmates with the profile of The Pastilla. Alcalá Meco – a prison saturated with “young inmates” – has a large daily traffic of people that increases on Christmas Eve, when communications between inmates and their families take place. There are many meetings with families and they are very frequent, so there are a large number of people coming and going. They all must go through a large hallway that connects the three buildings. El Pastilla had two authorized meetings with his family on December 23. He made the first one, a communication in the booth.
When he was going to the room to have a family visit, that was when he took the opportunity to escape from the prison. The prisoner walked straight out the front door that afternoon. He did so confused among the relatives who had come to visit the inmates before Christmas. In the recordings of the prison’s security cameras, it can be seen, as revealed by sources familiar with the investigation opened by Penitentiary Institutions, that the young man takes advantage of the movement of people to mix with the rest of the people who had gone to visit their relatives. , avoiding the official who returned the identity cards. The structure of the Meco prison did not help, but rather contributed to possible human errors that could have facilitated the escape.
The investigation is led by the Fugitive Location Group of the Central UDYCO of the National Police. After the escape, they published the image of the fugitive. Investigators suspect that the young man is in Morocco after crossing the Strait helped by a drug boat. El Pastilla comes from a broken family and was recruited by the Los Tayena gang while he was still a minor. He is a native of Ceuta and police sources consulted indicate that he has numerous police records prior to the two crimes attributed to him.
