20 |^22 AUGUST^2019 http://www.drum.co.za

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IMAGES/AFP

B

LAMETomCruise.The

staroftheMission:Im-

possiblemoviesmakes

disguisesand prison

breakslookeasy– put

ona maskandwigand

bluffyourway outof

trouble.

But BraziliandruglordClauvino

“Shorty”daSilvalearntthehardwaythat

moviemagicworksbetteronthesilver

screenthanit doesinreallife.Inwhat’s

beingdescribedasoneofthemostauda-

ciousattemptedprisonescapesofall

time,DaSilvatriedtosashayoutofthe

Gericinómaximumsecurityfacilityin

RiodeJaneirodisguisedashis19-year-

olddaughter,AnaGabrieleLeandro

da Silva.

The disguise was elaborate. He

swopped clothes with the teenager,

changing into her pink T-shirt and tight

jeans, and wore a long dark wig – but the

icing on the cake was the silicon mask he

pulled on that resembled Ana’s face.

Da Silva might have gotten away with

it too if guards hadn’t become suspi-

cious of his exaggerated feminine gait.

Yet it was when he asked guards for

Ana’s identity document, which had

been held at the security point during

her prison visit, that the jig was up.

“When he started talking, pretend-

ing to speak like a woman, the guard re-

alised it was an attempted jailbreak and

identified him,” said Moyses Henriques,

deputy head of prison operations in Rio.

Prison authorities released a video

that went viral. It shows the hardened

criminal removing a pink T-shirt and

black bra before taking off the wig and

peeling away the mask to reveal his face.

Da Silva, a drug trafficker who was

serving a 73-year sentence, was part of

the notorious Red Command, a gang that

controlsa largepartoftheRiodrugtrade.

Afterthebotchedattempthewasputin

solitaryconfinementina high-security

unit – where he took his own life.

Guards found his body hanging from

bedsheets in his cell.

D

A SILVA’S break-out attempt

involved leaving his daugh-

ter inside the jail where she

would find a way to saunter

out after papa was long

gone. She now faces charges

of abetting a prison escape, according to

Rio newspaper Extra.

Seven other visitors – including a preg-

nant woman suspected of smuggling the

disguise into the prison – are also under

investigation for their involvement.

This wasn’t Da Silva’s first attempt at

freedom. Aping the plot of another

movie, e aws an edemption,he

and 30 other convicts tunnelled their

way out of the same prison via the sewer

system in 2013. Four of the convicts were

captured almost immediately but Da Sil-

va made it out with his fellow gang mem-

bers, nicknamed Fish, Spider-Man and

Sledge Hammer.

They were all rearrested a month later

while attempting to seize control of a

township in Rio’s western districts with

a group of heavily armed men.

But it was his latest attempt that drew

maximum attention. Local tabloids had

a field day. “White Chicks 2 coming to

cinemas soon?” read a headline on the

front page of Rio newspaper Meia Hora.

Rosental Alves, a Brazilian journalist,

said authorities in the South American

country have an “old and bad tradition

of exhibiting suspects in humiliating

ways, as though they were trophies”.

But the bizarre details of the failed es-

cape justified the public release of the

video, he added, because it drew atten-

tion to a potential security lapse.

“The disguise used was so unusual, so

cinematic and spectacular,” he told The

NewYorkTimes.“I’veneverheardof

someoneusinga latexmasktoescape

fromprison.”

SOURCES: NYTIMES.COM, WASHINGTONPOST.COM, COMPLEX.

COM, VICE.COM, APNEWS.COM, THEGUARDIAN.COM

A Brazilian drug lord

has been found dead

after a failed attempt

to escape jail dressed

as his daughter

COMPILED BY DENNIS CAVERNELIS

PRISON

BREAK

The clothing and silicone mask used in the attempt.

OVE: A video

leased by prison

thorities shows

auvino “Shorty”

Silva’s attempt

look like his

enage daughter,

a (LEFT).

NEWS