Argentinian prisoners’ escape plan goes wrong as they dig a tunnel into kennels
An idea to escape from a prison in Argentina went wrong for a group of inmates after their tunnel led to where the penitentiary’s K-9 unit is housed.
According to Argentina outlet Clarin, it took the prisoners almost two days to construct a tunnel near the Unit 24 cell area, at the Florencia Varela Penitentiary in Buenos Aires.
The escape to the tunnel measured just three feet wide and five feet deep.
To make sure their plans weren’t uncovered by prison guards, they hid the hole under a slab of plywood and covered it with sawdust.
Unfortunately for the inmates, it appears their route was a little off and after the tunnel failed to make it outside the prison, but instead opened up inside the jail’s guard dog kennels.
The seven prisoners never had a chance to find out other way and dig route after officials failed their plan.
Guards discovered the underground passageway during a routine inspection of the facility Monday.
Video footage from the South American prison, which holds over 7,000 prisoners, showed just how narrow the escape hatch was.
The group of inmates were serving their time on the maximum and medium-security wings of the prison while serving sentences for robbery and were set to be released in 2021 and 2022.
The inmates now charged for attempted evasion and were each transferred to seven different penitentiaries.
Investigators are also trying to find out that the prisoners received any assistance from staff at the detention center.
Someone who made a better job of their escape was Italian mafia boss Rocco Morabito, who fled a prison in Uruguay while awaiting extradition.
Morabito was the suspected head of Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta – Italy’s most powerful organized crime group, which is believed to have controlled as much as 80 percent of Europe’s cocaine trade, the BBC reports.
According to Uruguay’s interior ministry, the criminal – who has the nickname ‘cocaine king of Milan’ – escaped alongside three other inmates.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said: “It is disconcerting and serious that a criminal like Rocco Morabito, boss of the ‘Ndrangheta, managed to escape from a jail in Uruguay while he was waiting to be extradited to Italy.
“I make two commitments. First: to shed light on evasion procedures, asking for immediate explanations from the Montevideo government. Second: we will continue to hunt down Morabito, wherever he is, to throw him in jail as he deserves.”
