Security camera footage shows guards at a Mexican prison standing by as 53 dangerous inmates walked out, and took no action until well after the convoy of escape vehicles had disappeared into the night.
The footage, first published by Reforma newspaper on Thursday and then released publicly by the attorney general’s office, provides a rare inside look at lax security inside Mexico’s prisons, a problem that makes prosecuting drug smugglers vastly more difficult.
Interpol described the worst of the criminals, who escaped without firing a shot, as “a risk to the safety and security of citizens around the world”.
Interpol issued an international security alert for 11 of the prisoners involved in the three-minute prison break on Saturday in Cieneguillas, in the northern state of Zacatecas.
About a dozen of the prisoners were drug cartel suspects.
Several had been jailed for kidnapping, said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The inmates stole 23 guns from a prison storage room before escaping, Mr Najera said.
The video shows bored-looking guards watching TV before one of the prisoners opens a gate to his cell block and then orders a group of inmates to follow him into the guards’ room. It is unclear if the prisoner had a key to the cell block or if the gate was unlocked.
The guards step aside, making no moves to stop the escape, until they are shoved into the cell block by the inmates, some of whom are armed. Prisoners then cover the camera with a blanket.
Meanwhile, a second security camera outside the prison filmed the arrival of gunmen in police cars with flashing lights shortly before 5am. Two guards run to open the front gate without questioning the drivers.
Eight gunmen wearing jackets with federal police insignia then enter the prison building and escort the inmates to the cars waiting in the prison parking lot.
After they are gone, one guard with his hands bound by plastic luggage ties is seen walking calmly down an empty hall.
Only after the convoy is well out of the picture can guards be seen running towards the gate, some crouching with their guns drawn. Reforma added in a caption that the guards appeared to be overacting for the cameras, “in Jim Carrey style”.
Mr Najera said 51 people had been ordered to be jailed for 30 days pending an investigation into their possible involvement, including the director of the prison and all 44 guards on duty during the escape.
He said only 15 of the fugitives had been convicted, and that it was illegal to keep them in the same cell block as the 38 whose cases were pending. The prison director was being questioned about why the 53 were kept together, Mr Najera said. – (AP)