A Brazilian husband and wife who have been on the run for 20 years ago after being convicted of extortion through kidnapping have been arrested after they started a new life running a swanky guesthouse on an idyllic paradise beach.
The couple, who actually own a pair of upmarket guesthouses on Garcez Beach in the municipality of Jaguaripe in the Brazilian state of Bahia, were arrested at their property by the Brazilian police on 19th February.
Leandro Silva Troesch and Shirley da Silva Figueiredo were sentenced to 14 and nine years in prison respectively for a crime they committed 20 years earlier, but where they never served time after going on the run.
The couple and three accomplices were convicted of kidnapping a woman in the neighbourhood of Itapua in the Bahia state capital Salvador and demanding a ransom of BRL 35,000 (GBP 4,578) for her in 2001.
According to local media, famous visitors stayed at the couple’s guesthouses in the following years and well-known artists even performed there, with the suspects managing to stay under the radar of the law all that time.
The couple’s lawyer Abdon Abadde has since told local media that the couple never shied away from arrest, but the authorities never sought them out until now.
He said: “They have Instagram, they put on events at the hotel and they advertise them. They are public figures and they have been there all along.”
The Instagram pages of ‘Paraiso Perdido’ and ‘Pousada Aconchego das Aguas’ have just shy of 90,000 followers, and the couple can be seen appearing in photos along with clients and public figures on the pages.
They were transferred to the Mata Escura Penitentiary Complex in the Bahia state capital of Salvador where they will serve their respective sentences.
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