public safety

Prisoner switches ID to evade U.S. agents

David Mesa/LA PRENSA

on guard:Prison officials at La Joyita have been charged with accepting a bribe to help a Mexican drug lord escape to avoid extradition to the United States.992515

Five police officers have been charged with helping a suspected Mexican drug lord escape from La Joyita prison a day before his extradition to the United States.

Porfirio Arévalos Cuevas escaped from La Joyita on Feb. 20.

So far, police have charged Captain Raúl Zambrano, lieutenants Luis Rodríguez and Saúl Gutiérrez, Sgt. Mario Lezcano and Corporal Luis Urriola with helping him escape. They all work at the prison.

Apparently Cuevas was able to switch places with another Mexican prisoner, by the name of Diego Arias, who looked like Cuevas.

Cuevas was able to escape while posing as Arias, who was being transferred to another facility.

Rodríguez was the officer in charge of monitoring all transfers in the area where both Cuevas and Arias were being held. Lezcano was in charge of checking the identifications of prisoners who were being transferred, police sources said.

According to statements collected by police, Cuevas offered a reward of at least $500,000 to anyone who would help him escape from prison once he learned that authorities from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency had arrived in Panama to take him to that country for prosecution.

He was supposed to leave the country on Feb. 21.

Cuevas, who also goes by the name David Placencia Solís, was captured by Panamanian authorities in May 2007 during an investigation into a drug ring operating out of Chiriquí.