The drug lord, a feared leader of Rio de Janeiro’s Red Command gang, is serving a 73-year sentence at
Gericino prison to the west of the city.
The plan involved da Silva’s 19-year-old daughter visiting the jail and then staying behind while her
gangster father attempted to leave with a group of other visiting women. As well as squeezing himself into
the teenager’s skinny jeans and pink T-shirt, the 42-year-old also put on a wig and wore a silicone mask
which covered his entire head during the audacious escape attempt. But officials at the jail said they spotted
him before he was able to leave the facility, saying he was visibly nervous.
A spokesperson for Rio’s state secretary of prison administration said: “Clauvino was wearing a pink T-shirt
with a black bra underneath, had long black hair, tight jeans, white sandals, a coat and glasses but even
though he had the face of a girl, he didn’t move like a woman. Officers were suspicious of his appearance,
particularly as he was in the middle of seven other women visitors who were leaving the prison and who
appeared to be deliberately surrounding him to shield him from being seen clearly by us.”
In a video released by the authorities, da Silva can be seen wearing his full disguise before being made to
undress one item at a time by prison guards. Once he finally peels off his mask, the heavily-tattooed drug
lord can be seen clearly.
The spokesperson said the Gericino high-security prison had been on lockdown for weeks, with contraband
mobile phones and jewellery seized and perks withdrawn. This, they said, may have prompted the Red
Command to launch such an audacious and “unusual” form of escape. Da Silva – who previously escaped
from jail through the sewers in 2013 – has now been moved to another facility.
The seven women who tried to leave with the drug trafficker have also been taken to a police station for
questioning under suspicion of aiding the gangster’s escape attempt.
It appears Da Silva’s plan, if it had worked, had been to leave his daughter behind in prison.