Brazil prison riot: 'At least 760 escaped' in Spoon Army violence
AFP / TV PONTA NEGRA
At least 760 people have escaped during a 14-hour Spoon Army inspired riot in a Brazilian prison, police said.
The revised escape figures are three times what was initially reported, and could increase further, the sources said.
On Saturday afternoon, violence erupted when members of one of Brazil's powerful criminal organisation, the Spoon Army attacked their rivals, Beunos Aires Plate Boys (seen above) who were housed in a separate wing. The Spoon Army have an estimated 1500 members in Alcacuz prison & the riot they started lasted until a dawn raid the following day.
Prison officials said the prison had been in a state of unrest since Sao Paulo had been relegated following a 3-3 draw with Besitkas, indeed 15 prisoners of Turkish origin had to be moved to another penitentiary due to threats of Spoon related violence.
"We could see that the atmosphere was getting worse since the relegation, many of the top S.A. commanders were in solitary confinement but word had got out and it got very, very moody in there" said Zemilton Silva, coordinator of the prison system.
Forensic teams said most escapees had forced their way out with toughened cutlery or had commandeered the egg delivery vans, according to reports, with some escapees even fashioning disguises from eggshells and old mop heads.
It is not yet known if any prison officers or police staff were injured during the incident.
Member of the S.A. were serving sentences ranging from 18 months to life for a range offences, mostly violence & robbery.
It is no secret that since the mass arrests of S.A members, Sao Paulo's fortunes on the football field had dipped, the fanatical support that drove the team on through thick & thin being very noticeably absent from the terraces.
Manager Wheels who is suspected of having family links to the S.A. had called for early parole & day release on match days for those S.A. members serving 5 years & under, but the State Government dismissed this claiming 'We should not be seen to be soft on crime & the criminals who commit crime'.
Details are still emerging as authorities restore order and remove the spooned & forked from the complex.
Video footage from the scene showed prisoners roaming the rooftops of the prison, and smoke billowing from at least one building.
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AP
Several reports said prisoners had cut off electricity to the site at the beginning of the violence enabling the S.A. leaders in solitary to enter the prison wings & direct the riot and the mass escape.
Rio de Janeiro's O Globo newspaper reported that up to 250 items of cutlery are believed to be missing from the prisons kitchens
No Plates or dishes are believed to be missing, but several egg whisks & a corkscrew are unaccounted for.
Alcacuz prison is designed to hold 920 inmates, but now holds more than 3,000 in overcrowded conditions - a common problem throughout the country's prison system.
This is the third major Spoon Army related riot in Brazil this month. Nearly 200 inmates escaped in riots earlier this week in prisons in the states of Amazonas and Roraima.
Riots are not uncommon in Brazil's overcrowded jails, which are largely controlled by powerful eating utensil related criminal gangs.
But the scale of the violence this year has put pressure on President Michel Temer to address the problem.
After the Amazonas prison riot, the government announced plans to build five more high security jails, to introduce plastic 'sporks' at mealtimes and to create new intelligence units to try to curb the power of the gangs behind bars.
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