A huge 33-foot-long tunnel from a prison, leading to sewers for inmates to break out, has been discovered by jail guards.
They suspect that work on the pongy passage started up to three months ago and was nearly complete.
They found the subterranean shaft before any convicts could make good their escape.
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The State Secretariat for Penitentiary Administration (SEAP) said the tunnel was discovered by officials at the Vicente Piragibe Penal Institute near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil yesterday (2 September).
They believe the tunnel was being prepared for several leaders of the Comando Vermelho criminal organisation, due to be transferred to the facility in the coming weeks.
Prison officers received a tip-off that a group of inmates was trying to access the sewage system underneath a disused vegetable garden in the complex.
According to reports, 31 inmates managed to escape through a tunnel leading to the same sewers in 2013.
At the time, an investigation concluded that the tunnel was built with tools from the prison after inmates were authorised to work on the pipes through which they later escaped.
Prison bosses believe this prison break was the inspiration for the latest attempt.
Five convicts who took part in the 2013 escape are still being held in the prison.
The inmates, suspected of organising the new tunnel, have been named as Josinaldo Rodrigues de Araujo, Jefferson Gomes da Silva, Alcides Francisco da Silva, Dário Nascimento de Freitas, and Rafael Silva Souza.
In total, 15 inmates have been transferred to a maximum security prison after the new tunnel was discovered.
SEAP is continuing to investigate the circumstances behind its construction and those responsible for its planning.
Spokesperson Maria Rosa Lo Duca Nebel said: “All those involved, who are still being identified, will be sent to isolation for an indefinite period and will certainly return to a closed regime.”
The institution was nicknamed the ‘Paper Prison’ after 105 inmates escaped in 2002, as reported by Need To Know.
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