Last fugitive from the Alcaçuz escape in May is recaptured in Paraíba

Maicon Dias Mora was the fifth fugitive from Alcaçuz in May — Photo: Seap/Disclosure

The last of the five prisoners who escaped from the Alcaçuz State Penitentiary, in Greater Natal, in May this year was recaptured this Thursday (25), in Paraíba. According to the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (Seap), Maicon Dias Mora was arrested in the municipality of Imaculada, in the Sertão of Paraíba.

The arrest occurred during an operation by the Civil Police of Paraíba, through the 16th Sectional Civil Police Station of Princesa Isabel, against organized crime. The action took place at Sítio Santo Aleixo, in the rural area of ​​the municipality.

According to the Paraíba Civil Police, two men and a woman were arrested during the operation. One of the men was a fugitive from the Alcaçuz State Prison, in Rio Grande do Norte.

Five prisoners escape from the Alcaçuz Penitentiary in Greater Natal — Photo: Reproduction

Other fugitives had already been recaptured

The first to be recaptured was Pedro Gabriel da Silva, found on May 20 in the Felipe Camarão neighborhood, in the West Zone of Natal. He was hiding at his relatives' house.

The following day, Jefferson Cleyton Lima da Silva was located on a farm in the municipality of Japi, 139 kilometers from Natal.

The fourth fugitive, Rodrigo da Silva Nascimento, was arrested on August 13, in the city of Sousa, Paraíba. According to Seap, he was located by military police from Paraíba with the support of intelligence from the Rio Grande do Norte Police.

Rodrigo was found with a firearm and ammunition. He was 26 years old and had a 37-year prison sentence for theft and corruption of minors.

Escape on May 2nd

Images released by the State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (Seap) recorded the movement of the five prisoners during the escape that occurred in the early hours of May 2nd at the Alcaçuz Penitentiary, in Nísia Floresta, in Greater Natal.

The inmates escaped between midnight and 1 am on May 2, but the escape was only discovered in the morning, during the count of inmates in the cells.

The images recorded on monitoring cameras showed the movement of the five prisoners outside pavilion 1 of the penitentiary. It was raining heavily in the region at the time of the escape.

Prisoners damaged ventilation system

According to Seap, they damaged the structure of the ventilation system to escape the cell, crossed an internal wall and then used an improvised rope made from sheets, known as a "teresa", to jump over the main wall, more than 5 meters high, of the penitentiary.

A week earlier, two prisoners had tried to escape through the ventilation system of their cell at the Rogério Coutinho Madruga prison, which is next to Alcaçuz. At the time, criminal police officers on duty and from the Radio and Video Monitoring Center prevented the escape.

Prisoners during escape from Alcaçuz penitentiary — Photo: Disclosure

Licoruz was the scene of the biggest rebellion in RN, with 26 dead

The Alcaçuz Penitentiary was the scene of the biggest rebellion in the history of Rio Grande do Norte, in 2017. In total, 26 prisoners died. Almost all were beheaded. Another 56 fled. The episode became known as the “Licorice Massacre”.

Created in 1998, the Alcaçuz Penitentiary would be the solution to end the problems generated by the Doutor João Chaves Central Penitentiary, known as "Caldeirão do Diabo", in the North Zone of Natal.