Brazilian fugitive Euclid Da Silva, who was captured by local police on Wednesday, is being questioned by the authorities in relation to several offences which led to him returning to these shores after escaping a Boa Vista prison in July.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud told Stabroek News yesterday that the man was detained for illegal entry as well as obtaining a Guyanese passport on a forged birth certificate.
Da Silva is also challenging his identity, Persaud noted; the fugitive is claiming that he is a Guyanese by birth.
Da Silva, who also goes by the names Euclides Erian Da Silva or Euclid Saigo, was serving time in the prison across the border from Lethem for drug trafficking and money laundering.
He is being kept in custody at the Brickdam Police Station and was taken to Police Headquarters, at Eve Leary, yesterday for further interrogation.
Reports are that his family was seeking the services of prominent city attorneys to have him released.
The man escaped from a maximum-security prison in Boa Vista late July, along with several other persons during a prison break.
He was flown to the city from Lethem on a flight which was specially hired for him, a police source stated on Wednesday.
Police officials acted on a tip-off and arrested the man at a house in Ogle on Wednesday afternoon.
Described as one of Brazil’s most wanted high profile fugitives, Da Silva escaped the Brazilian security forces several years ago after being jailed in 1998 on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Da Silva was serving time in a Brazilian prison after he was found guilty in the late 1990s for drug trafficking and money laundering. He was serving a 29-year prison sentence at the time.
After his first escape, he spent almost a decade here and established a business in the city.
In July 2010, the man was held by local police for allegedly forging a Guyanese birth certificate on which he purported to show that he was born here.
The man operated a business in the city and at the time of his arrest, a move was made in the courts to have his deportation blocked after his true identity was determined.
However, he was already in the custody of the Brazilian police and was later handed over to the authorities at the Lethem border.
