Prisoner Who Escaped by Swapping Places With Twin Is Recaptured

Alexander Herrera Delgado. Peruvian Interior Ministry

A man who escaped jail by swapping places with his twin brother has finally been recaptured over a year after his extraordinary escape.

Alexander Delgado Herrera escaped the Peruvian prison by drugging and impersonating his twin brother when he came to visit last January.

Peruvian authorities finally caught up with Herrera on Feb. 13, according to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior.

Picture of the main entrance (L) of the Ancon 2 prison, part of the Piedras Gordas Model Penitentiary complex, about 12 km north of Lima, taken on Aug. 29, 2013. Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images

Herrera was serving a 16-year sentence for child sexual abuse and robbery in a prison north of Lima, according to the BBC.

His brother Giancarlo, visited him on Jan. 10, 207, in Piedras Gordas prison, only to be arrested later and investigated on suspicion of collusion in his brother’s escape.

He was released and never charged.

Reports say that he was drugged with a can of pop given to him in his brother’s cell during a visit.

Only several hours later did the prison guards realize something was wrong.

They checked the identity of the now-incarcerated twin brother by his fingerprints, but it was already too late.

Female prison guards in a security cage monitor the doors between areas allowing movement of personnel, visitors. and inmates at the Ancon 2 prison, part of the Piedras Gordas Model Penitentiary complex, Peru. Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images

Herrera had swapped clothes, walking out freely through six internal doors and then the main gates of the prison, with no one spotting the fact that he had no visitor stamp.

No one had ever escaped from the prison before.

The Interior Ministry offered a reward of 20,000 Peruvian sol ($6,127) for information that would lead to his capture.

They had been tracking him for several months before finally catching up with him in the city part of El Callao, about 30 miles away from the jail, near Lima.

The location of Piedras Gordas prison, near Lima, Peru. Screenshot via Google Maps

“Today there was the recapture of a violator who on January 10, 2017, fled Piedras Gordas when he was supplanted by his brother,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

“This relative was in detention in place of him, but today Delgado Herrera has been arrested.”