Escape wizard's capture evokes the Albanian thread in Molise's story

Police in Spain have arrested an Albanian criminal nicknamed the "escape wizard" who had broken out of four prisons in Italy and Belgium, according to the Guardian. The fugitive, identified in foreign reports as Toma Taulant, escaped by sawing through bars, climbing down knotted sheets and even using a human pyramid, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The man's history of escapes from Italian jails places him in a broader pattern of organised crime moving through the peninsula's prison system, a story the foreign press has tracked for years. His final capture in Spain, after evading authorities across two European countries, closes a pursuit that had embarrassed Italian prison administrations.

For Molise, the case carries a quieter resonance. This region, the smallest in Italy, is home to villages founded centuries ago by Albanian refugees fleeing the Ottoman advance — communities that still speak an archaic Albanian dialect and keep their Orthodox-derived rites. The coincidence of an Albanian fugitive's Italian jailbreaks and Molise's Arbëreshë heritage is a reminder of how deeply the two populations have intertwined.