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Parker County escapee is recaptured

01:09 PM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009

By SARAH PERRY and DAN X. MCGRAW



WEATHERFORD — A detainee who escaped while being transported to a jail facility in Haskell County has been located, police said.

Authorities received a call Thursday afternoon from a prison saying they had apprehended 24-year-old Enzo Campos, Weatherford police said. Further details were not immediately available.

Campos had escaped Wednesday evening when a van carrying him and other prisoners stopped for fuel off Interstate 20 in Weatherford.

Police were concerned because they believed he had gang ties and may be a gang member. They believed he may have been headed to Dallas to stay with relatives.

Campos had been handcuffed to another prisoner but somehow managed to free himself, police said.

A guard momentarily caught Campos after he jumped out of the van, but Campos escaped after a brief scuffle, said Weatherford Police Capt. David Smith. The guard suffered a minor eye injury, he said.

Campos later knocked on the door of a home near I-20 and the Parker County line and persuaded a couple to drive him to Arlington, police said. He convinced the family that he was a laborer in need of a ride. The couple dropped him off near Collins Street and I-20, they told police.

Campos was being detained on charges of violating immigration laws, Smith said. His suspected gang ties notwithstanding, he was not accused of any violent offenses.

In October, he was arrested on a charge of criminal mischief and spent time in the Dallas County Jail, said Kim Leach, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Sheriff's Office.

He was arrested in 2006 for possession of a controlled substance and in 2007 for unauthorized use of a vehicle, she said.

Campos was being transported to the Haskell County detention facility by employees of a private jail company, Emerald Correctional Management.

After the escape, the other prisoners in the van were taken to the Parker County jail as Emerald workers assisted in the search for Campos.

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