Honduras recaptures notorious teen escapee

Sunday, November 27, 2005; Posted: 1:15 p.m. EST (18:15 GMT)

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- Police recaptured a 16-year-old who is accused of killing a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent and who has escaped from the same prison five times in three years, authorities said Sunday.

Herlan Colindres, a street gang member implicated in 16 other killings, had slipped out of the crumbling juvenile rehabilitation center where he was held outside the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on November 17.

Colindres was carrying a pistol when he was captured Saturday afternoon in the capital, Tegucigalpa, Security Minister Armando Calidonio said at a press conference.

Calidonio said more than 1,000 police officers participated in a nationwide manhunt for Colindres, and that authorities were considering what to do with the boy -- reluctant to send him back to a facility he has escaped from five times.

Colindres and his 13-year-old bodyguard were arrested in July in the killing of Michael Timothy Markey, a DEA agent who was shot to death while visiting a temple dedicated to Honduras' patron saint outside Tegucigalpa.

On August 7, Colindres weakened the metal bars of his cell with a nail file and fled, five days after boasting to reporters, "I will escape to kill all of the journalists." He was captured the same day while hitchhiking.

Following the escape, the government built Colindres a new brick-walled cell with a private bathroom. It was unclear how he escaped the cell, which was watched by six guards.

Colindres had been jailed previously in the killings of rival gang members, but was able to escape within days. He has denied involvement in Markey's death.

The teen had previously been identified as 13-year-old Erlan Colindres, but authorities later said he was three years older than believed and had modified the spelling of his first name.

Honduran authorities have said Markey, 44, who was based in El Paso, Texas, had been in the Central American country training police in drug interdiction efforts.