Brazil drug dealer dresses up as daughter in bungled jail escape Published duration 5 August 2019

media caption Guards were not fooled by the disguise

A drug dealer in Brazil was caught trying to escape from the jail where he was locked up by disguising himself as his 19-year-old daughter.

Prison authorities in Rio de Janeiro released a video showing the inmate wearing a wig, a silicone mask, a bra and a tight-fitting T-shirt.

The 42-year-old removes the items one by one to reveal a muscular physique very unlike that of his daughter.

Officials said the daughter could be charged with aiding a prison escape.

They said the 19-year-old had come to visit her father, Clauvino da Silva, at the jail in Rio de Janeiro known as Bangu 3, where he was serving a sentence of 73 years and 10 months.

You may also be interested in:

The prison authorities said Silva was planning to leave his daughter behind while he made a dash for freedom by impersonating her.

But the guards were not fooled by the homemade disguise, and after making him pose in front of the prison for photos they released to the press, the convict was returned to a cell.

It was not the first time an inmate left a relative inside in an escape attempt. Last year, a Peruvian fugitive drugged his twin brother during a visit and left the twin to serve his sentence. The authorities did not discover the swap until the fugitive was captured more than a year after his escape.

image copyright SEAP image caption Silva thought his small stature would help him pass as his teenage daughter

His daughter and seven other people who had recently visited Silva are being questioned. Prison officials believe they smuggled the items Silva used to disguise himself in with them.

They suspect that one of them, a pregnant woman who was not searched by the guards, had hidden the wig and the glasses used by Silva on herself.

image copyright SEAP image caption Prison officials believe the items were smuggled in by people visiting Silva

This was not the first escape attempt by Silva. In 2013, he was among a group of 31 prisoners who fled the Vicente Piragibe Penal Institute in Gericino through the jail's sewer system. He was later apprehended.

Officials said he would be transferred to a maximum security prison to prevent further escape attempts.