Remember Sindri Thor Stefansson, the Bitcoin mastermind who made his prison escape on a plane?

Well, this guy, Rédoine Faïd, wants Stefansson to hold his beer.

Arguably one of the most notorious criminals in France, Faïd took a leaf out of Stefansson’s book and bolted from prison in style on Sunday, July 1.

Instead of a plane, however, it was in a helicopter.

The Guardian has the scoop on how his ballsy escape played out:

Rédoine Faïd pictured below], 46, a well-known armed robber who was serving 25 years for the murder of a police officer during a botched raid, was being held in the isolation unit of Reau prison south of Paris.

Faïd was in the visiting room of the prison talking to a family member at around 11:15AM when a helicopter carrying at least two armed men landed in the grounds.

France’s justice ministry said the “armed commando” helped Faïd escape in just “a few minutes” with no one from inside the prison injured or taken hostage.

The men were dressed in black, wore police bands on their arms and carried assault rifles, a prison staff union representative told AFP.

The helicopter landed in a prison courtyard reserved for visitors which was not normally used for inmates and so did not have anti-flight netting over it.

The armed men burst out of the helicopter, let off gas canisters and used a grinding machine to force open the door leading to the visiting room.

The helicopter was later found burnt out just outside Paris. The pilot had been waiting for a flying lesson earlier that morning when he was held hostage at gunpoint and forced to fly the helicopter into the prison, France Info television reported …

A manhunt was launched as police scoured the area and the prison was put on lockdown.

Sjoe, if this was a case of one-upmanship, Faïd definitely has Stefansson beat.

I bet this even tops the greatest jailbreak of all time, which you can read all about here.

As for Faïd and his cronies, they apparently ditched the ‘copter for a car, which the police found torched at the O’Parinor shopping mall car park, per a report by The Daily Mail:

Yeesh, this poor car has had it by the look of things.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that Faïd and his crew are not people you want to trifle with. Not at friggin’ all:

The Ministry of the Interior said a huge police response has been ordered in an attempt to catch the fugitive, who has been described as dangerous.

“Everything is being done to locate the fugitive,” an official said.

Good luck with that.

He makes our criminals look rather amateur in comparison. Then again, they have been getting clever lately with all those cash-in-transit heists.

[sources:guardian&dailymail]