Redoine Faid, the notorious French convict who used a helicopter to break out of prison in July this year has been arrested by the police north of Paris.

According to the French police, the 46-year-old Faid was detained in the early hours of Wednesday along with his brother, two men and a woman.

He has been the most wanted man in France since his spectacular prison escape this summer, the second time he had broken free since he was jailed for 25 years for his role in a failed 2010 robbery that resulted in the death of French police officer, Aurélie Fouquet.

In early July, several heavily armed men hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to fly to Faid’s prison in Seine-et-Marne, near Paris where they collected the prisoner. They then flew to the Val d’Oise region where they transferred him to an unidentified vehicle. The case was a huge embarrassment for French police, coming five years after a previous successful escape by Faid.

In 2018, Faid held five persons, including four guards at gunpoint in a detention centre in the northern city of Lille. He then detonated explosives to destroy five doors before escaping.

While on the run, Faid grew a beard and wore a wig. After an international manhunt that spanned dozens of countries, he was finally captured at a hotel east of Paris and locked up in a different prison.

French officials said that for the helicopter escape, the gang helping Faid used drones for reconnaissance, surveying the prison and choosing a pickup point.

His last escape happened after a warning from a prison officer that Faid was taking too much interest in the prison where he was being held and should be transferred to another facility.