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A manhunt has been launched after a "dangerous" drill rapper and gang member successfully escaped from police custody for the second time in just one week.
Daniel Boakye, 21, first escaped from West Middlesex University Hospital in Lewisham last Tuesday, before making a second successful escape attempt from police custody just 48 hours later.
Police recaptured the inmate at a residential address in south-east London later on Wednesday, before he was found to have escaped from Metropolitan Police custody on Sunday.
The force is now hunting for the HMP Feltham inmate, who remains at large.
Boakye was jailed following a string of knifepoint robberies, with his current whereabouts unknown following the break, according to The Sun.
A Met spokeswoman said: “We are searching for a 21-year-old man who absconded from Lewisham Hospital at around 15:05hrs on Sunday, 15 February.
“Daniel Boakye was in police custody at the hospital receiving medical treatment when he fled.
"Officers gave chase but could not detain Boakye before he left the building. He is 21 years old, black, of medium height and slim build. He was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a dark Nike jacket when he absconded.
"We are currently reviewing this incident to fully understand the events which unfolded. The Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards is aware."
Government sources told the newspaper last week that his deportation is still being "actively pursued."
Following his arrest on Wednesday, police also held two women aged 20 and 51, as well as a 17-year-old girl and a 30-year-old man on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Boakye, of Enfield, north London, was sentenced to six years and five months in July 2023 over a spate of terrifying knife robberies in the capital that he and three accomplices carried out.
He was one of four then-teenagers jailed in 2023 after stealing £115,000 worth of cryptocurrency in knifepoint robberies across the capital.
He is also understood to have links to London gang OFB – Original Farm Boys – based on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham.
The latest manhunt comes after several high-profile mistakes by the Prison Service in recent years. Epping hotel migrant Hadush Kebatu was mistakenly freed in Essex last year.
