Police across South America are searching for the leader of a Venezuelan gang who escaped from the luxurious prison which he controlled, shortly before it was raided.
When 11,000 soldiers and police entered the inmate-run Tocorón jail in Venezuela on Wednesday, Héctor Guerrero Flores was nowhere to be found.
Under Guerrero Flores’s rule, Tocorón came to resemble a luxury resort.
The jail boasted a small zoo, a nightclub and a swimming pool.
The 39-year-old from Aragua state in Venezuela has been in and out of Tocorón prison for more than a decade.
In 2012, the leader of the Tren de Aragua transnational crime gang managed to escape from the jail by bribing the guards.
After his re-arrest in 2013, he was returned to the same prison, but it appears his power inside the jail – and over those tasked with guarding him – only grew.
Not only did he turn Tocorón into the nerve centre of the Tren de Aragua criminal enterprise, but under his rule, the jail was equipped with all the trappings of a luxury hotel.
Families of inmates moved into the compound. Inmates had access to a makeshift bank, a betting shop, a restaurant and a baseball diamond, while their children could marvel at flamingos and ostriches in the animal enclosure.
Source: bbc.com
