- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click here to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
(CNN Spanish) - A leak of at least 75 prisoners was recorded in a prison in Paraguay, according to the Ministry of Interior of that country.
Euclides Acevedo, Minister of the Interior, announced on Sunday that the police are on “maximum alert” and that “the best investigators of the institution” have been deployed in and around Pedro Juan Caballero, a city where the prison is located.
"Among the 75 escapees, the majority are members and initiates of the Brazilian First Comando da Capital (PCC) criminal group," the ministry said in a statement.
The authorities did not give exact details on when the inmates escaped, but the method did.
MORE: The Brazilian Prosecutor's Office imputes the former president of Paraguay Horacio Cartes
“A tunnel was found and we believe that tunnel was a misleading resource to legitimize or make up the release of prisoners. Here there is complicity with people inside and this is a phenomenon that encompasses all penitentiaries, ”Acevedo told the media this Sunday.
The minister also indicated that it is possible that some of the inmates have already escaped to Brazil and said that the Paraguayan government has already made contact with the Brazilian Police. Most of the escapees are highly dangerous, he added.
- MIRA: 478 kilos of cocaine valued in more than US $ 3 million seized in Paraguay
CNN has tried unsuccessfully to contact the Brazilian Ministry of Interior to obtain its reaction to Acevedo's statements.
Earlier, Justice Minister Cecilia Pérez said that authorities and prison guards will be separated from the charge and investigated by the prosecution.
Prison escape
