According to a report by the Spanish newspaper El País on August 26, Spanish police have recently captured Taurante Tomà, an Albanian criminal. He has four records of escape from prison and managed to get out of prisons in Italy and Belgium. He is known as the "master escape artist" by the outside world.
Spanish police said they found Tomà in Tarragona, in the southern part of the Catalan autonomous region, and arrested him on August 21 local time. At the scene of the arrest, the police faced fierce resistance from the suspect and his accomplices, but they eventually subdued them. Investigators estimate that Tomà has been hiding in Spain since January this year.
Tarragaona police officers said that Toma had fake documents and tried to pass through undetected. However, the police have a clear record of all his physical characteristics, including his prominent tattoo and scar on his right cheek, so they are very confident in identifying him.
During the arrest operation, Tomo and his accomplices attacked the police, resulting in two officers being injured. Currently, the Spanish police are still pursuing one of Tomo’s accomplices and have found a Sig Sauer pistol that he discarded.
Public information shows that 42-year-old Tomo was born in Albania. He has had four attempts at escaping from European prisons, which is why he was nicknamed “the master of escapes”.
Taw Lanat Thomas, The National News
Toma's first escape occurred in October 2009, when he was imprisoned in a prison in Terne, Italy, for armed robbery. While his fellow inmates were playing football in the yard, Toma managed to get through the gap in the prison fence and escape. However, he was captured by the police again two months later.
In February 2013, Tomo attempted to escape for the second time, this time from a prison in Parma, Italy. He joined with his fellow inmates to cut through the bars of the cell. Using a simple tool made by wrapping tape around the handle of a broom, they managed to reach the wall of the prison. Tomo’s escape lasted nearly 7 months, and he was eventually arrested within Belgium.
However, in December 2013, Tomo successfully escaped from a Belgian prison. He and several accomplices kidnapped prison staff as hostages and distracted the guards by creating chaos. Many prisoners formed 'legs' to help Tomo climb over the wall and escape. Reports said that there was even a car waiting outside the wall to escort him. After climbing over the wall, Tomo got into the car and fled.
This time, Tomo hid until 2015 when he was arrested by the police. In 2019, he was extradited to Italy. He was imprisoned in a prison with the highest security level in Milan, facing a sentence that would last until 2048. However, in December 2025, Tomo successfully attempted his fourth escape.
《Evening Mail》 reports that the escape by Tommaso in Parma, Italy, involved a remarkably similar tactic to the one used earlier. He employed extreme dieting to reduce his weight and slim down, successfully squeezing through a narrow gap created after sawing through the iron fence a mere centimeters wide. Subsequently, he used a bed sheet and a broom handle-made tool to crawl over the wall.
Currently, Tomà is detained in Spain, awaiting his extradition to Italy. According to the National newspaper, due to Tomà’s multiple crimes and several attempts to escape from prison, he will still face a long period of imprisonment.
