Updated February 14, 2018 14:14:03

Photo: Alexander Delgado drugged his own twin to escape from jail (Peru's Interior Ministry)

A maximum-security prisoner who escaped by drugging his twin brother and changing into his clothes has been captured after a year on the run.

In a statement, Peru's Ministry of Interior confirmed Alexander Jheferson Delgado Herrera was arrested in the city of Callao on Monday (local time) despite attempts to evade police.

A reward of S/20,000 ($7,700) had been offered for information leading to his capture.

He had been convicted of sexual violation of a minor in 2015 and was serving a 16-year sentence.

The 28-year-old escaped from Piedras Gordas prison on January 10, 2017 after drugging his twin brother Giancarlo Stuard Delgado Herrera during a visit.

He then changed into the brother's clothes and walked out of jail.

Argentine newspaper La Nacion reported the brother was detained for several hours but released after fingerprints confirmed his identity.

Photo: Peruvian authorities have recaptured a prisoner after a year on the run. (Peru's Interior Ministry)

Charges against the brother for helping his twin were eventually dropped.

"The case of the twin is amazing, in 12 years no one had escaped from [the prison]," Justice Minister Marisol Perez Tello told La Nacion.

Director of the National Penitentiary Institute, Carlos Vasquez, reportedly said that when Delgado was captured he would be transferred to the high altitude prison Challapalca.

That plan is yet to be confirmed.

Challapalca is located at 5,000 metres above sea level in Peru's highlands.

Human rights organisations have criticised the prison's isolated location for exposing inmates to freezing temperatures and chronic altitude sickness.

Topics: prisons-and-punishment, law-crime-and-justice, peru

First posted February 14, 2018 13:13:49