Two inmates arrested after standoff with police following 'James Bond-style' helicopter escape from Quebec prison



Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, 36, and Danny Provencal, 33, involved in escape

They grabbed on to ropes hanging from a helicopter at Saint-Jerome prison

Police have arrested four people including the two escapee inmates



Reports suggest the two escapees have links to the Hells Angels

Pilot was found 53 miles from prison and treated for shock in hospital



Breakout: Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau is now back in custody after a daring jail break from a prison in Saint-Jerome, Quebec

Two inmates escaped from a prison in Quebec during an audacious operation in which a helicopter flew into the jail and airlifted the convicts away .

A pilot, thought to have had a gun to his head, lowered the aircraft over the Saint-Jerome prison's exercise yard.

Prisoners Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, 36, and Danny Provencal, 33, held on to ropes attached to the vehicle before being flown away.



Police later arrested four people 30 miles from the prison, including the two escapee inmates, who are said to have links to the Hells Angels biker gang.



Hudon-Barbeau was arrested on Sunday, while police established a security perimeter around a building where Provencal had barricaded himself in.



After negotiations the absconder eventually surrendered himself peacefully.



Earlier on Sunday, police received a call from Saint-Jerome jail, reporting the escape around 2:20 p.m.

The jail's warden told police that Hudon-Barbeau and Provencal had grabbed a rope dropped from the helicopter to make their getaway, Richard said.

One witness described the attempted escape as a 'James Bond moment'.



A man, claiming to be Hudon-Barbeau, called in to Montreal radio station 98.5 FM shortly after the escape claiming he was trying to evade police and was 'ready to die,' CBC reported.

'It will end badly,' the man said. 'I'll kill myself, I'm 36-years-old, I was told that I would die in prison.'

'The way they're treating me in there, it's unreal,' the man told the radio station. 'They won't let me be. They put me back in prison for nothing.'

Arrests: Police vehicles block a road just outside the town of Chertsey, Quebec, after the escape. Four people were later arrested

Authorities did not immediately respond to the claims made in the radio station interview.



He also claimed to have been shot in the leg during the escape.



The daring breakout resulted in an extensive manhunt, both by land and air, with police tracking down the helicopter in Mont-Tremblant, about 53 miles (85 kilometers) away from the jail.

The helicopter's pilot, described as an 'important witness', was the only person remaining at the scene and was taken to a local hospital and treated for shock.

Police declined to comment on press reports the pilot had a gun to his head and whether the helicopter had been hijacked.



Hijacked: The helicopter was found miles from the scene with only the pilot still inside. Authorities believe the pilot, who was treated in hospital for shock, may have been forced to participate in the breakout

Scene of escape: Four people, including the two escapees, were later arrested. Reports suggest the two men have links to the Hells Angels

'He's going to be questioned later on by investigators, within the next couple of hours,' Sgt. Benoit Richard said.

He said it was too early to know for certain what the pilot's role was in the escape.

According to a provincial police report, Hudon-Barbeau was arrested in November on two firearm related charges and for associating with people who have a criminal record.

The arrest came as part of an investigation of a double murder in Quebec.

Yves Galarneau, the correctional services manager at Saint-Jerome jail, said there are no security measures in place at the jail to prevent a helicopter from swooping down from above.



'As far as I know, it's a first in Quebec,' he told reporters at the scene. 'It's exceptional.'

Cut-off: A police block in place before the men were captured. Provencal eventually handed himself over after barricading himself in a building

A police Twitter feed reported that officers were in pursuit of a 'suspect vehicle' at 4:45 pm, according to the Globe and Mail.

The Saint-Jerome prison, located about 37 miles northwest of Montreal, experienced a mini-riot by about a dozen prisoners a little over a month ago.

In that incident, police were called in to secure the outside of the prison, which holds about 480 inmates, and prison staff used pepper spray to disperse the mob.

Although the tactic may have been a first for Quebec, a helicopter has been used in several other jailbreaks.

A New York businessman, Joel David Kaplan, used a chopper to escape from a Mexican jail in 1971, later writing a book about it.

Pascal Payet, a French prisoner, used a helicopter to escape on three occasions, only to be caught by authorities on every occasion.























