An idea to escape from a prison in Argentina went wrong for a group of inmates after their tunnel led to where the penitentiary’s K-9 unit is housed.
According to Argentine outlet Clarin, it took almost two days to the prisoners who construct a tunnel near the Unit 24 cell area, at the Florencia Varela Penitentiary in Buenos Aires.
It was measured by just three feet wide and five feet deep.
To hide their plan, the suspects, who were part of a carpentry work program, completely covered the hole with piece plywood and then littered it with sawdust.
Unfortunately for the inmates, their route was a little off after the tunnel failed to make it outside the prison, and it opened up inside the jail’s guard dog kennels.
The seven prisoners never had a chance to find out other way and dig another route after officials failed their plan.
Guards discovered the underground passageway during a routine inspection of the facility Monday.
Video footage from the South American prison, which holds over 7,000 prisoners, showed just how narrow the escape hatch was.
The suspects were among 1,540 prisoners detained in the maximum and medium security wing of the facility and were serving sentences for robbery. They were due to be released as early as 2021 and 2022.
The inmates now charged for attempted evasion and were each transferred to seven different penitentiaries.
Investigators are also trying to find out that the prisoners received any assistance from staff at the detention center.
Someone who was succeeded in their escape was Italian mafia boss Rocco Morabito, who fled a prison in Uruguay while awaiting extradition.
Morabito was the suspected head of Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta – Italy’s most powerful organized crime group, which is believed to have controlled as much as 80 percent of Europe’s cocaine trade, the BBC reports.
According to Uruguay’s interior ministry, the criminal – who has the nickname ‘cocaine king of Milan’ – escaped alongside three other inmates.
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said: “It is disconcerting and serious that a criminal like Rocco Morabito, boss of the ‘Ndrangheta, managed to escape from a jail in Uruguay while he was waiting to be extradited to Italy.
“I make two commitments. First: to shed light on evasion procedures, asking for immediate explanations from the Montevideo government. Second: we will continue to hunt down Morabito, wherever he is, to throw him in jail as he deserves.”