French-Algerian gangster, son of a Maghrebi Muslim immigrant, who was influenced by American crime films such as Scarface, Reservoir Dogs and Heat. He has been considered France’s most wanted criminal. After his first robbery he fled to Israel and learned Hebrew to avoid prosecution. Faid wore a kippa (skullcap) pretending to be Jewish and contemplated converting from Islam to Judaism in order to settle quietly in the Jewish state.[5] He also learned techniques from a former Israeli soldier.
In the mid 1990s, he and Jean-Claude Bisel led a criminal gang that was responsible for armed robbery, jewel theft, and extortion in the Paris area. In 1997, seven of eight accused were tried for said charges (the eighth having fled to Algeria). He was sentenced to 30 years, but was released on parole after ten years in jail.
In 2009 he wrote a book, Braqueur: Des cités au grand banditisme, about growing up in a life of crime in Paris’ banlieues, and claimed to have given up a life of crime. However, he was the suspected mastermind of an armed robbery that claimed the life of a policewoman in 2010, and subsequently was caught after he broke parole conditions in 2011, which returned him to prison for eight years.
On the morning of 13 April 2013, he broke out of the Sequedin prison, using explosives to blast through five prison doors, holding four prison wardens hostage during the escape and employing the use of a getaway car. He then burned the car in Lille and left in another vehicle. The same day, a Europe-wide warrant was issued.
Rédoine Faïd was arrested again on may 29th, 2013 at 3am in a B&B Hotels in Pontault-Combault, Seine-et-Marne, France.
Link to Wikipedia biography