A United Kingdom expert has arrived to carry out a “full, independent investigation” into the October prison break at His Majesty’s Prison in Balsam Ghut.
The government, however, won’t name him.
Thirty-seven-year-old Jose Almestica and 27-year-old John Burgos, both citizens of the United States Virgin Islands, escaped the prison between 6:30 and 9 p.m. on Oct. 25, officials said at the time.
On Nov. 4, Governor Daniel Pruce announced that he had commissioned an independent investigation, and last week acting Governor David Archer Jr. provided an update.
“I can now confirm that the UK’s Ministry of Justice has identified an expert in prison security and risk management to undertake the investigation,” Mr. Archer said in a Nov. 26 statement. “The expert has arrived in the Virgin Islands and has begun his investigation.”
The investigation, he said, is expected to take “about two weeks” to complete.
“[It] will be thorough and impartial and will ensure that we identify what went wrong and take the necessary steps to strengthen security,” Mr. Archer said.
Mr. Archer’s office declined to provide the name of the investigator.
“It is the [UK] Ministry of Justice’s policy not to publicise the names of their investigators,” the office told the Beacon.
On the loose
The two inmates have remained on the loose despite intensive search efforts by police and other law enforcers.
Both men have been accused of serious crimes.
In July, a High Court jury found Mr. Almestica guilty on narcotics and firearms charges following a three-week trial linked to a record seizure of 20 guns, nearly 500 kilograms of cocaine, and other contraband that police said they found at a Ballast Bay residence in 2021.
In August 2022, he was also charged with the murder of Deverson Williams, who was shot to death in broad daylight on a public road in Fish Bay in March 2021, police said at the time.
The escape is not Mr. Almestica’s first: He was among dozens of inmates who left the Balsam Ghut prison following Hurricane Irma in 2017.
Most of the prisoners later returned, but he stayed on the lam until his arrest in 2021.
Mr. Burgos was charged in 2023 with unlawful possession of firearms and drugs.