NEARLY 80 prisoners, many of them members of a big Brazilian drug- and arms-trafficking gang and described as “highly dangerous”, yesterday escaped from a Paraguayan prison near the border with Brazil, said police.

The inmates, both Brazilians and Paraguayans, made their getaway through a tunnel they dug from the prison in the border city of Pedro Juan Caballero, said police spokesman Elena Andrada.

“Our best men have gone to the border to attempt to recapture the prisoners.”

The 76 escapees comprise 40 Brazilians and 36 Paraguans, said officials.

Justice Minister Cecilia Perez issued a sharp condemnation, telling reporters that it must have taken the prisoners “several weeks” to build the tunnel, adding: “It is evident that the staff knew nothing and did nothing.”

The prison’s warden has been dismissed and dozens of guards 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 have been found in Ponta Pora, a Brazilian city separated from Pedro Juan Caballero by an avenue.

Pedro Juan Caballero lies about 500km northeast of the capital, Asuncion.

Perez voiced “a strong suspicion that officials are involved in this corrupt scheme”, and said the escapees are considered “highly dangerous”.

They include men who took part in a massacre last June at the San Pedro prison, said Andrada.

She said the inmates dug a tunnel “like we see in the movies, complete with internal lighting”.

It starts from a prison bathroom, she said, and there is a distance of just 25m between the tunnel and the nearest guard post.

Investigators have also found hundreds of sandbags.

Brazil, meanwhile, has 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 Border Operations Department, military highway police and other security troops backed by a helicopter have been mobilised, he said, according to Anuncion’s ABC daily.

And, Paraguayan Interior Minister Euclides Acevedo said police special operations staff are combing the area of the escape, backed by helicopters. – AFP, January 20, 2020.