Brazilian manhunt continues for two murderers who escaped maximum-security prison and built an underground bunker to hide from drones that detect human heat

Two fugitive killers built an underground bunker to hide from police drones that detect human heat after fleeing from a maximum security prison in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. 

Convicted murderers Rogério da Silva and Deibson Cabral set up their hideout spot near the home of a couple they held hostage after escaping from the Mossoró Federal Penitentiary in the municipality of Baraúnas of on February 14, Brazilian news magazine Fantastico revealed. 

Cabral and da Silva were housed in adjoining jail cells at Mossoró Federal Penitentiary, where they were serving 81 and 74 years for murder, respectively. 

On February 17, the convicts broke into a rural residence 13 miles away from the prison and paid the couple about $1,000 to allow them to sleep in hammocks.

There, they dug a hole and used a tarp to protect them from heat-seeking drones. 

Deibson Cabral (left) and Rogério da Silva (right) escaped from Mossoró Federal Penitentiary in the northeastern municipality of Baraúnas on February 14. They are the first inmates to ever flee from Brazil's any of the five jails that make up the country's the federal prison system

Deibson Cabral (left) and Rogério da Silva were able to build an underground bunker and covered it with tree branches and a tarp so that police drones could not detect them

'The asked us to be calm and that nothing would happen if we did what they asked,' the homeowner held hostage said. 

The man told police he and his wife complied because da Silva and Cabral revealed information about their family and that it seemed that they knew to go to their home. 

'They said all the time that people were watching us, but that nothing would happen if we helped,' he said. 

The man added he was forced to buy food for them and left it under a tree on his property. 

To hide from police, da Silva and Cabral dug a hole in the forest near the couple's home, covering it up with branches and a tarp. 

Da Silva and Cabral fled the property on Friday shortly after the man was stopped by police at a checkpoint and revealed that he had been forced by them to provide refuge.

A homeowner revealed the fugitive suspects broke into his home February 17 and forced him and his wife to provide them refuge

No prisoner had ever escaped Brazil's federal jail system until February 14 when Rogério da Silva and Deibson Cabral, who were housed in adjoining cells, fled the Mossoró Federal Penitentiary

Federal Highway Police superintendent Péricles Santos said the fugitives have also fed themselves because of fruits that are produced in the region, but sniffer dogs have been unable to trace their whereabouts in the woods because rain had erased their tracks on the ground.

Authorities split 500 hundred agents into day and night units in hopes of capturing the suspects, who could be hiding in any of the 207 caves spread out across 32 square miles.

No prisoner had ever escaped Brazil's federal jail system until February 14 when da Silva and Cabral, who were housed in adjoining cells, fled the Mossoró Federal Penitentiary.

They were able to cut holes through the top area of their cells  

'We want to know how these citizens dug a hole and no one saw it,' Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva said last week. 

The Brazilian fugitives paid a couple about $1,000 to stay at their home and remained there for seven days before fleeing Friday

The fugitives were able to break out of the prison through a hole they dug through one of the walls in their jails cells located next to each other 

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva was livid after learning that two prisoners escaped from the Mossoró Federal Penitentiary by tearing down a section of their jail cell wall. 'We want to know how these citizens dug a hole and no one saw it,' he said 

Both were members of a Rio de Janeiro-based faction of the Comando Vermelho.

Cabral and da Silva had been transferred to Mossoró Federal Penitentiary in September 2023 after they were involved in a rebellion at Antônio Amaro Alves Prison in Rio Branco, which left five people dead.

They were unsuccessful in fleeing together from Antônio Amaro Alves Prison in 2013 after they sawed off their iron jail cell bars and used them to built a ladder to reach the ceiling before they were busted by guards, Globo News reported.

Prior to Cabral and da Silva, no prisoner had ever escaped from the federal penitentiary system, which oversees five maximum-security prisons.

According to the National Secretariat of Criminal Police, jail guards prevented two escapes in 2023 - one at Mossoró Federal Penitentiary and another at Catanduvas Federal Penitentiary.