Police in Spain have arrested a dangerous Albanian criminal nicknamed the “escape wizard”, who has managed to break out of four jails in Italy and Belgium by sawing through bars, clambering down knotted sheets and even using a human pyramid to breach prison walls.

The fugitive, who has not been officially named, was arrested after officers from the Policía Nacional force discovered that the he was living in the north-eastern Spanish city of Tarragona and was the subject of a European arrest warrant issued by the Italian authorities.

Spanish police identified the man by the initials, TT, which correspond to those of Toma Taulant, an Albanian national known in Italian media as the “mago della fuga”, or the “escape wizard”.

Before escaping from a maximum-security prison in Milan eight months ago, he was serving a prison sentence due to end in 2048 for a series of offences including violent robbery, theft and drug dealing, according to Italian media reports cited by Agence France-Presse.

“It sounds like something out of a film, but sometimes reality is stranger than fiction,” the Policía Nacional said in a statement which described him as “the master of escapes”.

“He escaped from a jail in [the Umbrian city of] Terni in 2009, from a jail in Parma in 2013, and from a Belgian prison that same year after using a human pyramid to climb over the wall,” the police said. “His latest escape, in December 2025, came after he managed to break out of a maximum security prison in Italy after sawing through the bars and climbing out of the window down knotted sheets.”

According to the statement, the “very dangerous” fugitive was arrested in Tarragona on 21 August despite putting up “strong and active resistance” as officers swooped.

“The man was accompanied by a number of his compatriots who tried to stop him being arrested, including one man who struck and injured two officers.” Police are still looking for the assailant but have recovered a Sig Sauer pistol that was discarded by one of the suspect’s associates.

Once in custody, the man was found to be in possession of fake identity documents, which revealed that he had a criminal record in the Catalan city of Girona for possession of weapons and explosives. He was also found to be carrying two €500 banknotes that are thought to have been counterfeited and which have been sent to the Bank of Spain for investigation.

The suspect was denied bail and has been remanded in custody at a jail in Tarragona while he awaits extradition to Italy.