A gangster who made a Hollywood-esque helicopter jailbreak has been arrested in northern France after three months on the run, sources close to the inquiry said early Wednesday. 
 
 Notorious French robber Redoine Faid was apprehended during the night in the Oise region north of Paris along with three other men including his brother, one source said, confirming earlier media reports. 
 
 A massive manhunt was launched after Faid's daring July 1 escape, in which two heavily armed accomplices used smoke bombs and angle grinders to break through doors and whisk him to a waiting helicopter. 
 
 Faid, a career criminal with multiple convictions for armed robbery, was sprung from the prison in Reau, 30 miles southeast of Paris. 
 
 Escaped French gangster spotted in car with explosives, narrowly avoids capture 
 
 Two men posing as flight school students, who had already taken an introductory flight, forced a helicopter instructor at gunpoint to fly them to the jail. 
 
 The terrified pilot landed in the courtyard -- the only part of the prison not fitted with anti-helicopter nets -- prompting a heated debate in France about whether the country's prisons are secure enough. 
 
 Faid had been serving a 25-year term over a botched 2010 heist in which a policewoman was killed, though he claims her death was accidental. 
 
 Around 100 specialist police were deployed to track down the 46-year-old, who narrowly avoided capture just weeks after his flight and had to abandon a car carrying explosives. 
 
 Manhunt underway for gangster who broke out of French jail 
 
 Faid had escaped from prison once before, for six weeks in 2013. 
 
 He has cited movie baddies such as Tony Montana in "Scarface" as an inspiration and said he discovered his "calling" at the age of 12. 
 
 In July, investigators found a stash of guns, masks and a cement cutter in the Oise region, which they believed belonged to his gang. 
 
 Weapons were also seized in the raid on Tuesday night in the town of Creil which unfolded without incident, according to the source. ||||| Image copyright IBO/SIPA/REX/Shutterstock Image caption Redoine Faid (pictured in 2010) 
 
 Rédoine Faïd, a French gangster who broke out of jail using a hijacked helicopter in July, has been recaptured. 
 
 The country's most wanted fugitive, he was detained north of Paris, reportedly with his brother and two men. 
 
 Faïd, 46, is a fan of gangster films, which he credits with teaching him how to pull off raids. 
 
 He was first arrested in 1998 for armed robbery. The 1 July jailbreak was his second and most dramatic escape. 
 
 He was sprung from a prison in Réau, south-east of Paris, by three heavily armed men who broke into the visitors' room. They then bundled him into a helicopter flown by a flying instructor who had been taken hostage. 
 
 Faïd had been serving a 25-year sentence for masterminding a botched robbery in which a policewoman was killed in 2010. 
 
 He was recaptured in the early hours of Wednesday in the town of Creil. 
 
 French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told Europe 1 radio: "We're going to put him in a high-security facility where he will be watched extremely closely." 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Redoine Faïd was arrested overnight in his hometown, Creil 
 
 The arrest came hours after Interior Minister Gérard Collomb - the country's top law-enforcement official - resigned to run for mayor in Lyon, France's second-largest city. 
 
 The move is regarded as a fresh setback for President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity has fallen sharply in recent weeks. The interior ministry will be temporarily headed by Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. 
 
 Who is Rédoine Faïd? 
 
 Born in 1972, he grew up in Creil. In the 1990s he ran a gang involved in armed robbery and extortion. 
 
 He has said Hollywood movies, such as the Al Pacino thriller Scarface, inspired his lifestyle and some of his schemes. 
 
 During a 1997 attack on a security van, he used and his accomplices used ice-hockey goalkeeper masks, mimicking Robert de Niro's gang in the film Heat. 
 
 He later said he had watched that movie "hundreds of times" on DVD and once told its director, Michael Mann, at a Paris film festival: "You were my technical adviser." 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Redoine Faid was placed on Interpol's most-wanted list after his 2013 escape 
 
 His fame was helped by a 2009 book outlining his younger days on the streets of Paris and his descent into the life of a professional criminal. 
 
 That earned him the nickname "L'Écrivain" - or "the writer" - among French police. 
 
 Timeline of a jailbreaker 
 
 Faïd's cycle of imprisonment and escape began with his arrest in 1998 for armed robbery and bank theft.
– A French gangster inspired by movies like Scarface and Heat broke out of prison yesterday and sparked a manhunt across Europe, CNN reports. Redoine Faid, 40, briefly held four guards hostage and blew up several prison doors before fleeing in a getaway car. He later set fire to his car and left two hostages standing on a highway, reports AFP. His current whereabouts: unknown. "He is remarkably intelligent, and he is using his intellect to serve his ambitions," said Faid's lawyer. "He cannot stand being imprisoned anymore." Faid spent 10 years in prison for robbery before he achieved celebrity in 2010 with his autobiography, Robber: From Suburbs to Organized Crime. But he was back behind bars a year later, suspected of organizing an armored-car robbery that left a policewoman dead in a shootout. Now an estimated 150 French police are after him, Interpol is involved, and warrants have been issued in 26 countries. Authorities say Faid's wife visited him yesterday and may have smuggled explosives into the prison—a claim her lawyer vigorously denies.