ASUNCION, Jan 20, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Nearly 80 prisoners, many of them
members of a big Brazilian drug and arms-trafficking gang and described as
“highly dangerous,” escaped Sunday from a Paraguayan prison near the border
with Brazil, police said.
The inmates, both Brazilians and Paraguayans, made their getaway through a
tunnel they had dug from the prison in the border city of Pedro Juan
Caballero, police spokeswoman Elena Andrada said.
“Our best men have gone to the border to attempt to recapture the
prisoners,” she said.
The number of escapees totalled 76, including 40 Brazilians and 36
Paraguans, officials said.
Justice Minister Cecilia Perez issued a sharp condemnation, telling
reporters that it must have taken prisoners “several weeks” to build the
tunnel and adding, “It is evident that the staff knew nothing and did
nothing.”
The prison’s warden was dismissed and dozens of guards were arrested.
Most of the escapees belong to a criminal gang known as First Capital
Command, one of Brazil’s most powerful gangs.
Andrada said the burning hulks of five vans used in the escape were found
in Ponta Pora, a Brazilian city separated from Pedro Juan Caballero only by
an avenue.
Pedro Juan Caballero lies about 300 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of
the capital Asuncion.
Perez voiced “a strong suspicion that officials are involved in this
corrupt scheme” and said that the escapees are considered “highly dangerous.”
The escapees included men who had taken part in a massacre last June at
the San Pedro prison, Andrada said.
She said the inmates had dug a tunnel “like we see in the movies, complete
with internal lighting.”
It ran from a prison bathroom, according to Andrada, and there were only
25 metres between the tunnel and the nearest guard post.
Investigators have also found hundreds of sandbags.
Brazil meanwhile moved to tighten security in its nearby border area to
help recapture the inmates, Antonio Carlos Videira, Mato Grosso do Sul
state’s justice and public safety secretary, told reporters.
The Department of Border Operations (DOF), the Military Highway Police
(PRE) and other security troops backed by a helicopter have been mobilized,
he said, according to Anuncion’s ABC daily.
And Paraguay’s Interior Minister Euclides Acevedo said police special ops
staff were combing the area of the escape, backed by helicopters.