
Rédoine Faïd, the notorious French armed robber, has just received the news of an additional 14 years to his imprisonment by a Parisian court. Faïd wasn’t one to live a mundane criminal life. His feats were drawn from grandiose narratives depicted in French and American gangster films, evidently leading him to orchestrate a dramatic jailbreak in 2018 from the Réau prison situated on the outskirts of Paris.
In his circle of accomplices, two brothers, three nephews, and a member of the Corsican underworld were implicated. What brought significant discord was that this was the second time Faïd was able to outwit the French prison system. In 2013, he facilitated his escape from Sequedin prison using smuggled explosives and a gun, only to be recaptured a month later.
The day of July 1, 2018, sparked fresh headlines when three armed individuals kin to Faïd took control of a helicopter, forcing the pilot to descend in the prison courtyard. As they deployed smoke bombs, Rachid, Faïd’s elder brother, cut through doors with a disc grinder, and in less than ten minutes they were airborne again. The subjects of this daring spectacle, the inmates, responded with raucous applause.
Following his bold departure from prison, Faïd eluded capture for three months, eventually caught in his hometown of Creil, north of Paris, donned in the attire of a Muslim woman. The abandoned helicopter was discovered in Gonesse, a little further north of Paris.
Faïd could easily be characterized by his reputation as a “social predator” and “gifted manipulator”. Embracing these traits, the trial offered him a stage to immortalize a romantic recounting of his criminal history. His narrative highlighted a crippling sense of boredom and doom, trapped 23 hours a day in a “concrete sarcophagus” with the prospect of enduring this for another 20 years looming over him. He used this to explain his insatiable addiction to freedom and his longing for an escape route.
Defying the prosecution, Faïd maintained that a group of anonymous “professionals” had empowered his escape. However, the prosecution countered this narrative, stressing the motivation was family-centered and primarily fueled by Faïd’s desire for attention.
At a time, Faïd did attempt to tread the straight path, penning a book about his criminal past and appearing frequently on national television.
An Algerian descendant and the 10th child among 11 siblings, Faïd embarked on his criminal journey with a bank robbery in 1990. He admitted to being influenced by Hollywood’s depiction of criminal life and despite the murder of a policewoman in 2010 during a pursuit following his orchestrated robbery, he insisted on adhering to a criminal code of honor.
His elder brother, Rachid, stands convicted for organizing the jailbreak and has been sentenced to 10 years in jail. His accomplices, including nephews and the previously unsuspecting brother, Brahim, have also faced a bevy of prison sentences.
An interesting twist to the trial was the suspicion of a connection to Corsican mafia boss, Jacques Mariani, who Faïd allegedly contacted to plan an escape. Both parties deny these allegations with the only contrary evidence deriving from an anonymous intermediary now living under a different identity.