02/18/2024 – 18:37
The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, traveled to Mossoró this Sunday, the 18th, to follow the investigations and searches for the two inmates who escaped from the maximum security penitentiary, which is located in the city. In a press conference, he stated that it is not yet possible to say whether prison guards were involved in the escape, contradicting a statement by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), who suggested such a hypothesis.
“Until the investigations are completed, whether at the administrative or police level, we cannot say that there was collusion. But all hypotheses are being investigated,” said the minister.
Earlier, on a visit to Ethiopia, Lula commented on the case and suggested the possibility that the inmates had help to escape from prison. “We are looking for the prisoners, we hope to find them, and, obviously, we want to know how these citizens dug a hole and no one saw it. All they had to do was hire an excavator. I don’t want to accuse, but, theoretically, it seems like there was collusion with someone in the system there,” said the president.
It is the first time in the country's history that criminals have managed to escape from a maximum security federal prison. This type of prison has existed in the country since 2006, and there are five in total spread across Brazil, including the one in Mossoró.
Lewandowski also stated that there is no deadline for the end of the search for the two detainees, and that the administrative and police investigations, which investigate the possible collusion of agents, have a deadline of 30 days for completion, but with the possibility of being extended for another period.
“While we are investigating, corrections are being made. The possible flaws have already been corrected, so that the Mossoró prison is once again absolutely safe and capable of holding the inmates there,” said the minister.
The two fugitives are identified as Deibson Cabral Nascimento and Rogerio da Silva Mendonça. Both are linked to the criminal faction Comando Vermelho (CV), according to preliminary information. The group dominates criminal operations in Acre, where the pair were imprisoned until September last year.
Last Friday, the duo even broke into a house and took a family hostage for a few hours. Without using violence, the criminals stole cell phones, food and left the residence, which is 3 kilometers from the penitentiary.
According to the minister, the area where the detainees are located is “rural and extensive” and presents obstacles that make capture difficult, such as caves and local roads, and even the occurrence of rain would have hindered the capture work scheduled for this Sunday. .
The minister also commented on structural flaws. “These structural flaws, which are old because the prisons were built from 2006 onwards, may exist in some places. Here they were corrected immediately. We are evaluating whether these failures are repeated in other prisons”, stated the head of the ministry.
Afterwards, André Garcia, secretary of penal policies, stated that “there is no weakness”. “It was a one-off that will not happen again.”
The two inmates managed to escape from federal prison between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. On Thursday, Lewandowski explained that Rogério da Silva Mendonça and Deibson Cabral Nascimento escaped from jail after climbing a lamp, reaching the ceiling and accessing the sector where the prison's maintenance is carried out.
From there, he allegedly took tools that were being used on work at the prison. As the renovated place was only protected by a metal fence, the criminals found a gap, went out and cut the fence with pliers collected at the site.
He also highlighted the union of different police forces to find criminals – such as the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, military police from Rio Grande do Norte, Pernambuco, Ceará and Paraíba, as well as federal criminal police, and mentioned that searches continue to be carried out by drones and helicopters too.
“We have around 250 police officers on each shift, day and night. Therefore, we have 500 police officers working to recapture the two fugitives,” added Lewandowski.
Federal agents reject corruption in the Mossoró escape case
The National Federation of Federal Criminal Police, which brings together the union of employees from the country's five federal prisons, released a statement this Saturday, the 17th, to comment on the escape of two inmates from the Mossoró unit, in Rio Grande do Norte, this week. The category said it believed that there was no prior planning on the part of the duo, but “rather an opportunity that was taken advantage of and they were successful”.
The demonstration attempts to reject any suspicion regarding possible illicit favoritism to civil servants, which could have directly or indirectly helped in the escape. “It is too early to reach this conclusion”, says the note signed by Gentil Nei Espírito Santo da Silva, president of the federation, who classified comments of this nature as “irresponsible”. (Leon Ferrari, Paula Ferreira and Marco Antônio Carvalho collaborated)
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