A man who escaped from a Puerto Rican prison almost 40 years ago has been arrested in southwestern Florida, authorities said. The fugitive, Jorge Milla-Valdes, was living in Fort Myers under the name Luis Aguirre, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies caught Milla-Valdes by analyzing his fingerprints, the sheriff’s office said Friday in a social media post. They compared an original set of prints taken in Puerto Rico in 1986, the year before Milla-Valdes fled incarceration, with another set collected by authorities in South Florida’s Monroe County, near the Everglades, where “Luis Aguirre” apparently had a criminal history. His record in Monroe County included robbery and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, according to the Lee County sheriff.
The analysis confirmed both prints were a match within 15 minutes, the office said. The Puerto Rico Department of Justice had previously tipped off Lee County law enforcement to the escaped prisoner’s possible whereabouts in Fort Myers, as well as his believed alias. That helped members of the sheriff’s fugitive warrants unit find what they believed to be Milla-Valdes’ residence in the neighborhood Fort Myers Shores.
Milla-Valdes admitted to breaking out of prison and adopting a different name in body camera footage recorded as he was being taken into custody, which the sheriff also shared on social media. Asked by an officer whether he used to go by “Jorge,” Milla-Valdes, while handcuffed, said, “Yeah, years ago. About 40 years ago.” He acknowledged that was around the time he escaped from jail in Puerto Rico, and the officer informed him Puerto Rican authorities had put out a warrant for his arrest.
“My team’s skill is unmatched at every level; even if your crimes don’t start here in Lee County, I promise, they WILL end here,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a statement.
