A Chinese drug trafficker on death row made a miraculous escape from a jail in Indonesia by tunneling through the sewage system, according to authorities. According to a cellmate, Cai Changpan, 37, who escaped last week, had been meticulously planning this for months and used tools acquired from the prison's kitchen to dig a tunnel.
Cai had been monitoring the movement of the jail guards and took the opportunity of the timing of changing of guards to execute his escape. According to police officials, a high alert has been issued as Cai is still at large. He had earlier also made a similar escape a few years ago.
Much like a Film
Cai, who was convicted of methamphetamine smuggling, was jailed in the Tangerang area on the outskirts of Indonesia's capital Jakarta. However, he escaped from the jail last Monday by digging a hole from his cell into waste pipes and onto a road outside the prison, according to Jakarta police spokesperson Yusri Yunus.
According to a cellmate, Cai had been planning this escape for more than six months and finally executed his plan last week. He allegedly used tools from a construction project in the prison kitchen to dig the tunnel through which he escaped. The drug trafficker, who also uses the name Cai Ji Fan, took the opportunity of the changing of the guards of the prison to time his escape, according to Indonesia Directorate General of Prisons spokeswoman Rika Aprianti.
Not the First Time
Jakarta has been put on high alert since the incident and police have been looking for Cai, who is still at large. Following the incident, Cai has also been put on the most wanted list by the police. Cai was arrested and sentenced to death in 2017 for trafficking 135 kgs of crystal meth, according to Indonesian news website detik.com. A police investigation also found 70 kgs of meth hidden in chicken coop cleaner equipment. Since then he has been in this jail.
However, this isn't the first time that Cai has made a daring escape form a jail. He had earlier broken out of a Jakarta police detention center in 2017. That time too he had used tools to bore a hole in a bathroom wall through which he fled the jail. He was arrested a few months later and since then had been serving a death sentence.
