Images of that event, which occurred in the prison Lemos Brito from Bangu, were exhibited today by the Brazilian media, according to the AFP news agency.
Who are the three escapees
Among the escapees is Jean Carlos dos Santos37, known for ordering the murder of his own lawyer in 2016 and for other crimes for which he was convicted.
Dos Santos controlled drug trafficking in a favela in the north of Rio de Janeiro before being captured in 2017, according to Brazilian media.
Another of the escapees Marcelo Sterque, he had escaped from the same prison years before to commit a contract killing and shortly after return to his cell, for which he bribed the guards, according to the local press.
At the time of the escape, around 3 yesterday, “all the prisoners were in their cells and the strategic (vigilance) posts should have been covered,” affirmed the secretary of Prison Administration of Rio de Janeiro, María Rosa Nebel.
The official admitted, in statements to TV Globo, that at the time of the escape there were only seven prison officers looking after more than 700 prisoners, but maintained that this “does not justify the fact” and assured that the authorities were “investigating.”
Security cameras, the key
Local media claimed that the jail’s security cameras were not working at the time of the escape due to a power outage caused by heavy rain. That “may have affected the surveillance system” of the prison, Nebel acknowledged.
Some 15 prisoners from the same criminal group as the fugitives were transferred to a maximum security prison and the agents present during the escape “were replaced,” the Penitentiary Administration Secretariat reported in a statement.
The note added that a cell phone was found in the cell of the escaped traffickers.
Source: Ambito
