Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: CEN
Video Credit: CEN
This is the moment prisoners show off their arsenal of huge blades before a brawl which saw four inmates beheaded and a further murdered in a jailhouse clash between rival gangs.
Officials from the Interior Ministry confirmed the incident took place in the prison of the city of San Pedro de Ycuamandyyu, in the eastern Paraguayan department of San Pedro and left nine inmates dead.
Local media report the prison fight broke out between members of the Primer Comando Capital (First Capital Command-PCC), reportedly the largest criminal organisation in Brazil, and their rival gang the Clan Rotela, run by Paraguay’s most important drug trafficker Armando Javier Rotela.
Pictures Credit: CEN
The General Prosecution of Paraguay confirmed to local media that five inmates had been beheaded and three had been burnt to death. Another victim was taken to San Pedro hospital with gunshot wounds but later died of his injuries and another 12 were injured in the confrontation, according to prosecutors.
None of the victims have been named in reports but a video allegedly shows members of the PCC showing off their arsenal of knives before the attack.
Local media report members of both gangs were killed in the brutal confrontation.
Victor Valbuena, head of police in the area, said that some of the inmates had guns, making it difficult for officers to enter the facility to keep the peace. He added that officers had requested air support to restore peace after several hours of confrontation.
Reports state the shocking confrontation was born from both competition over drug smuggling and an effort to stop the leaders of the PCC being extradited to Brazil.
The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the Director of the prison Wilfrido Quintana and the Director of Prison Institutes Blas Martinez have both been removed from their positions in the wake of the incident.
Juan Ernesto Villamayor, the Interior Minister, said that in the Paraguayan jails around 400 members of those two criminal gangs are jailed, around 120 are from Brazil, and the rest are Paraguayan prisoners working for both gangs.
He added: “We are going to expel all those who have crimes in Brazil as we cannot expel a criminal if there is not a criminal case against him there, otherwise, he would be released”.
The policy of expelling foreign prisoners was increased in November 2018 after Brazilian drug trafficker Marcelo Pinheiro, alias Pilot, who belongs to the Comando Vermelho criminal organisation in Brazil, murdered a woman who visited him in his cell in order to avoid his extradition to Brazil.
The investigation is ongoing.
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