Inmate Drugs Twin, Swaps Clothes, Lives Prison-Free for a Year

A Peruvian inmate drugged his brother to assume his identity and break out of jail.

February 16, 2018

Peruvian prison Piedras Gordas — Image via Getty/Cris Bournoncle/AFP

It be your own brother sometimes.

Alexander Jheferson Delgado executed an elaborate Prison Break–like plan when he drugged his identical twin brother, swapped their clothing and walked out of Piedras Gordas, a highly secured prison in Peru, according toThe Washington Post.

Delgado, who's serving a 16-year sentence for child sexual abuse and burglary, seized the opportunity when his brother, Giancarlo Stuard Delgado, visited him in January 2017. After hanging out in the common area, Delgado brought his brother up to his cell and secretly gave him a sedative-laced soda.

Although Giancarlo immediately alerted the prison guards about what happened when he woke up, they didn't believe him. But luckily, they were able to confirm his story after comparing his fingerprints to the fugitive. But that didn't stop authorities from believing that Giancarlo was complicit in the crime.

"That alibi, only he believes it," said Carlos Vásquez, the head of Peru’s prison agency, according to the Post.

Although Alexander didn't have the all-day visitors stamp on his arm, he was able to walk past six security checkpoints towards his freedom leading to the firing of Vásquez and several guards for alleged negligence. As for Alexander, it took the police one year before they caught him. When reporters asked him why he decided to do it, The Post reports that it was because of his "desperation to see [his] mother."

Now, he's heading to Challapalca, another Peruvian prison used for uncooperative inmates. Although that might not be so smart since it's the same prison where 17 prisoners were able to escape at once in 2012. But as long as his brother doesn't visit him again, it should be all good, right?