WATCH: A convicted murderer who walked away from a minimum security prison in Mission has been arrested in Peru. Rumina Daya reports.
A man who escaped from a Lower Mainland penitentiary while serving a murder sentence has been found and arrested in Peru.
Norman Gilbert Riel was last seen in B.C. jumping into a vehicle outside the gates of the Mission Institution on August 24, 2014.
Now, he likely faces extradition back to Canada from Peru.
“The public has still never been told how this individual escaped in the first place, but just as disturbing is how did he get out of the country?” asks NDP Caucus House Leader Mike Farnworth.
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When arrested by police in Peru last week, Riel told them he was a tourist from the Philippines and didn’t have a passport.
But he was convicted in 1998 for killing Patrick Pugh, a Vancouver pot dealer who was shot in the head four years earlier. Riel also had several other convictions for robbery and firearms offences.
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In addition, police said he was known to have gang ties to Mexican and South American drug cartels – and he also escaped in 2010, before being arrested in Las Vegas a year later.
The Mission Institution is a minimum-security prison in the Fraser Valley. They and the Correction Service of Canada haven’t discussed why Riel originally escaped, but say once he’s back in Canada, he’ll be reassessed. It’s unclear whether he will be sent back to the institution.
“We are aware of a Canadian citizen detained in Peru. Canadians officails are directly in contact with local authoriteis on this case. Due to limitations under the Privacy Act, no further information can be released,” wrote the Foreign Affairs Department in a statement.
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