Brazilian drug lord living it up behind bars in luxury three-room VIP ‘cell’ with en suite bathroom and plasma TV
A BRAZILIAN drug lord has been living a life of luxury behind bars in a flashy ‘VIP cell’.
Jarvis Chimenes Pavao is serving an eight-year stretch for money laundering charges in Tacumbu prison in Asuncion, Paraguay.
The jail is notorious for its terrible living conditions and frequent violence.
The 1,655 capacity facility has 3,980 people crammed inside, and six people died in a fire there just last month.
Inmates also took over the prison in a brutal riot in June, taking two guards hostage.
But Pavao’s experience of life behind bars couldn’t be more different.
Photos reveal an expansive three room ‘cell’ consisting of a bedroom, living room and kitchen.
The gangster had an en suite bathroom, a treadmill and a big-screen plasma TV – complete with a large DVD collection including a TV box set of a series about Pablo Escobar.
Colombian drug baron Escobar – focus of Netflix series Narcos – was allowed to build his own luxury prison after his capture in the early 1990s.
The images emerged after cops raided the cell – which is more like a hotel – after hearing reports he was planning to escape.
Intelligence indicated he was planning to blow a hole in the wall with a bomb and make a getaway.
Police swooped to prevent a jailbreak – only to find he had been living in the swanky pad with his own library, double bed and treadmill.
Related stories
Other pics showed spacious wardrobes housing Pavao’s collection of shoes and designer clothes.
Paraguayan media report that the inside of the cell has now been destroyed.
But Pavao’s lawyer said her client’s lifestyle only served to show how corrupt the Paraguayan prison system was.
The drug lord bribed six or seven justice ministers and the same number of prison directors, she alleged.
She also claimed Pavao paid for the prison directors’ lodgings, toilets for the guards, prison cooks’ salaries and funded the renovation of the prison library.
Police are now investigating the claims and Pavao has been moved out of the cell and into a special prison unit.
Prisoners at Tacumbu told AFP news agency that anyone wanting to stay in the luxury unit had to pay Pavao a one-off fee of $5,000 (£3,778) and a weekly rent of $600.
One inmate called him “the most loved man in this prison”.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team?
Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368