Alarm in Brazil for the first escape from a maximum security prison: this is how two Red Command prisoners escaped

Subsequently, the government of Brazil decided to tighten the conditions of confinement in the country’s federal prisons the “unusual” escape of two inmates from a prison considered “maximum security”which put 300 mobilized agents on a relentless hunt to recapture them.

The secretary of Criminal Policies of the Ministry of Justice, André García, explained in a press conference that, after these escapes, it was decided suspend visits to federal prisons and that the prisoners remain in their cells for the next five days.

These measures were taken on Wednesday two prisoners escaped from the Mossoró federal prisonin the northeast of the country, in what García described as an “unusual event”.

Regard the first recorded escape from one of the country’s five federal prisonsall of “maximum security” and in which prisoners considered “highly dangerous” are housed, mostly belonging to criminal organizations.

Both fugitives, in fact, are accused of belonging to the so-called Commando Vermelhoa powerful drug trafficking gang from Rio de Janeiro with ramifications into other types of crimes, which has tentacles in several countries in South America.

The first indications gathered by the investigators indicate, according to the local press, that the prisoners allegedly stole some tools from the penitentiary courtyard where the repair work was being carried out.

With these tools, both prisoners They made a hole in the ceiling of the cell who they occupied and fled outside before running for a long time and cutting the perimeter fence of the complex.

One of the escaped prisoners was identified as Rogério da Silva Mendonça, sentenced to 74 years in prison. The other is Deibson Cabral Nascimento, with a sentence set at 81 years.

Both had been in Mossoró since September 2023, when they were transferred from another prison after participating in a rebellion that ended with five deaths, three of whom were beheaded.

García said he could not “detail” the actions that the police took to capture the fugitives, but assured that they were using “all means available” and that Interpol was even informed of it, faced with the possibility that the two men intended to leave the country.

“Relaxation” and “facilitation”: the hypotheses behind the escape to Brazil

Regarding the escape, García raised doubts about the prison’s surveillance controls and cast a pall of suspicion on the behavior of the guards.

“If the security protocols had been respected, there would be no possibility of a leak,” the official said. “We do not rule out any of the possibilities: easing [de los vigilantes]facilitation [de la fuga por parte de los guardias] or what the research indicates. I can’t say anything else,” García added.

The Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, then specified that 300 officers from various police forces, supported by three helicopters, are participating in the search for the fugitives.

He also announced that, subject to verification of this, he intends to modernize the entire security infrastructure of federal prisons some prison surveillance cameras ‘weren’t working properly’.

Likewise, an investigation was opened to establish whether there was any internal complicity in the escape and the directors of the Mossoró prison were also “suspended” from their duties.

In Brazil, according to official data, 832,300 people were detained at the end of 2023, in a prison system that can only hold 600,000 inmates, of which around 1,500 are held in federal prisons.