Both Khayari and his fellow escapee, Ashraf Sekkaki, were identified as members of a gang responsible for carrying out four armed robberies since the escape in Antwerp province. In one of the robberies, in Oud-Turnhout, the robbers are thought to have got away with more than €50,000. As Flanders Today went to press, it was reported that Khayari's brother and another man had also been arrested. Khayari was immediately transported back to Bruges prison, where he was due to be interviewed by an investigating magistrate later in the day.

Khayari is known as the chief henchman of Hassan Maâche, a notorious gangster. Khayari has escaped from jail before, in Verviers, when he swapped identities with his brother, who had come to visit. He was last arrested in 2008 following a car-chase on the Brussels Ring when he opened fire on a police helicopter. He was sentenced to eight years by a court in Oudenaarde for a series of four armed robberies.

Meanwhile the other escapees, Sekkaki and Mohamed Johri, remain at large, as does the girlfriend of Johri who helped organise the escape. A friend of Sekkaki's, Lahoucine El Haddouchi, also took part in the hijacking of the helicopter, but was left behind on the prison yard when the helicopter was too heavy to take off again.