The man who mocked Costa Rica law officials escaping their custody, John Wesley Saatio, an expert in escapes, escaped from U.S. law enforcement officials within days of being returned to the United States from Costa Rica.
Saatio was extradited to the United States from Costa Rica last week (June 25) and was in the process of being transported back to Hougthon, MI when he escaped from the custody of a private inmate transportation company in Santa Rosa county.
This morning, the Pensacola News Journal reports Saatio was recaptured within 48 hours of escaping custody during a restroom break on Interstate 10 in Milton. According to the press from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, a citizen called around to advise of a suspicious person, deputies deploying a K-9 unit, apprehending the suspect four hours later. Saatio was searched and two makeshift handcuff keys were found in his socks.
According to Michigan State Prison records, Saatio had been arrested for breaking and entering a building with intent, and is a sex offender violation involving a person under the age of 13.
Following his escaped from Hougton Country, MI prison on June 19, 2015, Saatio made his way to Costa Rica, where he was captured last month in a bar in Pacific coastal town of Jaco, after a year on the run.
Costa Rica authorities caught up with him after receiving confidential information.
An expert in escapes, Saatio almost made fools of Tico law officials, after his arrest was caught “bending the bars” and almost getting free. He was immediately transferred to a the Hatillo immigration detention centre in San Jose, when, days after his arrival, managed to escape detention while being served dinner, breaking through a fence and out through the roof of the facility.
His freedom, however, was short-lived, recaptured in less than 48 hours.
This time, not taking any chances of another escape, the fugitive was being held in the cells of the OIJ, Costa Rica’s judicial police.
Under orders of the of the Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (immigration service) to be extradited from Costa Rica, the process had been suspended following a request for asylum.
Immediatly following his recapture, his asylum request was denied and his deportation from Costa Rica was carried out.
Saatio left of a commercial flight for Texas in the custody of the United States Marshals Service.
