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Foiled jail-break for gang leader dressed up as daughter

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A gang leader tried to walk out of a Rio prison wearing his daughter’s clothes, a wig and a silicone mask — and made it about ten feet before guards stopped him.

On Saturday, August 3, 2019, 42-year-old Clauvino da Silva — a senior figure in Brazil’s Comando Vermelho (Red Command) known on the street as “Baixinho,” or “Shorty” — tried to swap places with his 19-year-old daughter during visiting hours at the Gabriel Ferreira Castilho unit inside Rio de Janeiro’s Gericinó prison complex. The plan called for da Silva to leave her behind bars and walk straight out the front gate disguised as a woman. Guards flagged him almost immediately, and prison officials released footage of the takedown that quickly spread far beyond Brazil.

• Da Silva disguised himself in a full silicone female face mask, a long dark-haired wig, tight jeans, a black bra and a pink T-shirt printed with cartoon doughnuts before attempting to walk out the main entrance.
• Guards grew suspicious of his nervous demeanor and awkward gait and stopped him before he reached the exit, then ordered him on camera to strip off the mask, wig and shirt and state his legal name.
• Authorities are investigating his daughter and seven other female visitors — including a pregnant woman suspected of smuggling the mask and clothing past metal detectors — while da Silva has been moved into isolation at the high-security Bangu 1 unit to face disciplinary sanctions.

The Collapse of the Disguise

Da Silva’s plan depended entirely on passing as his daughter for the few seconds it takes to clear a checkpoint. Instead, guards at Gabriel Ferreira Castilho noticed a visitor who wouldn’t move naturally and wouldn’t make eye contact — the kind of stiffness that gives away a mask rather than skin. That was enough to stop him cold before he got anywhere near the outer gate.

The video released by Rio’s State Secretariat of Prison Administration, known as SEAP, shows da Silva standing frozen while officers instruct him to remove the disguise piece by piece. He peels off the silicone face, pulls off the wig, then unbuttons the doughnut-print shirt to reveal the black bra underneath — and confirms his own name on camera, ending the charade in front of the same officials he was trying to slip past.

He peels off the mask, removes the wig, unbuttons the shirt to reveal the bra — and confirms his own name.

The Man Behind the Wig

Da Silva isn’t a low-level inmate looking for a shortcut — he’s a senior leader in the Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil’s largest and most entrenched drug trafficking factions, with decades of influence inside Rio’s prison system. That status is exactly why his attempted walkout drew so much attention: a gang leader of his rank trying something this improvised, and this visibly panicked, is not what officials expect from someone who has spent years navigating the same facility.

The improvisation extended to sourcing the disguise itself. A full silicone mask and wig aren’t items an inmate can request through normal channels, which is exactly why SEAP is now scrutinizing how they got inside the visiting area in the first place.

The Accomplice Investigation

SEAP’s inquiry now centers on da Silva’s daughter, left inside the facility once he attempted to walk out in her place, along with seven other women who visited that day. One of them, a pregnant visitor, is suspected of smuggling the mask and clothing past the prison’s metal detectors — raising the question of how disguise-grade silicone gear cleared security screening meant to catch exactly that kind of contraband.

Da Silva has since been placed in isolation and transferred to Laércio da Costa Pelegrino, the high-security solitary unit better known as Bangu 1, to face formal disciplinary sanctions. It’s the same kind of maximum-security housing Brazilian authorities have leaned on before with inmates they consider flight risks, and it effectively ends any chance da Silva sees a normal visiting room again anytime soon.

SEAP’s release of the footage was itself a message — a public demonstration that its screening process, however it let the mask through, caught the walkout before it mattered. Da Silva stays at Bangu 1 while the daughter and the other seven visitors remain under investigation, and whatever comes of that inquiry will likely shape how tightly Gericinó screens its next visiting day.