16 inmates from the Eunápolis Penal Complex, located in the extreme south of Bahia, managed to escape on Thursday night (12) after an armed group invaded the unit and exchanged gunfire with security agents.
The escape occurred around 11pm, and as of Friday morning (13), none of the prisoners had been recaptured. According to information from the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration of Bahia (Seap), the inmates were in two cells that were opened by the suspects during the invasion.
Seap reported that the company Reviver, responsible for co-management of the unit, called the police, but there was no time to intervene during the invasion. One of the suspects was arrested and confessed to having received R$5,000 to participate in the action.
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Colonel Luís Alberto Paraíso, regional commander of the PM, reported that the inmates pierced the ceiling of a cell while the armed group fired at the agents. “The criminal group came from outside the prison, cut the fence and started shooting at the guardhouses,” the colonel told TV Bahia.
The invasion was allegedly carried out by eight men with the aim of rescuing Edinaldo Pereira Souza, known as “Dada”, head of the criminal faction Primeiro Comando de Eunápolis (PCE), as well as fifteen other inmates, all members of the same organization. The fugitives were serving sentences for crimes such as drug trafficking and qualified homicides.
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After the escape, teams from CIPE-Mata Atlântica began searching the vegetation around the prison, but did not find the fugitives. The Technical Police Department (DPT) was called to carry out investigations at the scene.
The Eunápolis Penal Complex, which currently houses 554 inmates, exceeding its capacity of 457 places, is a medium security unit intended for male prisoners, both provisional and convicted.
