A 63-year-old convicted murderer and former soldier known as the “Galician Rambo” because of his survival skills and history of jailbreaks has been arrested by police in north-west Spain after spending almost a year on the run.
Alfredo Sánchez Chacón, who was supposed to remain behind bars until 2025 for the murder of a man in 1996 and other offences, failed to return to prison after being allowed out on a day pass last March.
He was arrested in the early hours of Thursday after residents of the Galician municipality of Valdoviño noticed a man trying to force his way into a house and informed a local Guardia Civil officer.
The off-duty police officer headed to the house and noticed movement nearby.
“After waiting a while, he saw a person emerging from a thicket with a rucksack on his back,” the force said. “As he headed towards the road, the officer gave chase and ordered him to stop. The man dropped his rucksack to try to get away more quickly, but was caught and subdued by the officer after a brief chase.”
A Guardia Civil source told El País that Sánchez Chacón was limping, adding: “He’s pretty old now and very broken.”
After being taken to hospital for a check-up, he was placed in a cell in the Galician city of Ferrol while he waited to appear in court.
Police investigating the 1996 murder spent seven months searching for Sánchez Chacón before he was spotted in a brothel and arrested in March 1997. He had been in jail in Vigo for just a few months before he and a fellow inmate escaped by knotting together sheets and climbing out of a window.
The fugitive then evaded capture for two years by drawing on the training he had received as a member of the Spanish Legion and moving around the countryside of northern Spain.
He was recaptured in a bar in November 1999, only to escape once again in 2001. That time, however, his bid for freedom lasted just 25 minutes.
