Revealed, how cops tracked this one white car which led them to kidnappers holding F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law
Investigators used security camera images of the white car involved to track kidnappers
MORE details are emerging of how Sao Paulo’s elite anti-kidnap squad rescued Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law in a daring police operation.
The news comes as cops revealed the mastermind behind the plot took care of helicopter operations for Formula 1 in Sao Paulo up until 2014.
Investigators used security camera images of the white car involved in the kidnapping of Ms Aparecida Schunck to track the culprits.
This gave them their first lead which was decisive in solving the case.
Investigators found fingerprints of one of the suspected kidnappers, Davi Vicente Azevedo, in the Ms Schunck’s abandon white fiesta 25 miles away in a street near the Raposo Tavares Highway.
The license plate was traced to Azevedo who was wanted for other petty crimes. Police tracked the car’s journey across the city to Cotia.
The police knew Azevedo had suffered a motorcycle accident on the 26 July.
They watched Azevedo’s house in Cotia and arrested him as he left the property. Azevedo was on crutches.
Faced with the fingerprint evidence, Azevedo agreed to ‘collaborate’ with police.
The other accused, Vitor Oliveira Amorim, was at the hostage hideout watching the victim.
The pair wanted £28 million delivered in cash in four separate bags to guarantee her safety.
None of the ransom has been paid and two suspected kidnappers have been arrested.
Investigators traced emails negotiating the ransom, sent from a Yahoo account, and monitored Whatsapp messages.
Police reported that the first email was very long and well written, but as each day passed they became shorter and text included swearing at the police.
Officers are believed to have known of Mrs Schunck’s whereabouts last weekend and staked out the house. Once certain she was inside, cops stormed the building on Sunday.
They arrested Azevedo on Sunday and he confirmed the victim’s location.
A third kidnapper, Commander Jorge Eurico da Silva, and the mastermind behind the plot, was arrested at a luxury condomium in the Granja Vianna in Cotia, in the Greater São Paulo.
According to the police, he is an airline pilot had worked for the family and the Formula 1 entrepreneur and took care of helicopter operations in Formula 1 in Sao Paulo until 2014.
The suspects in custody are said to have led police to Silva’s location.
Silva’s number was found on the phones of the two suspects arrested on Sunday. They had also made return calls to him.
The kidnappers are reported to have held their victim hostage “right under the noses” of their landlord and his wife in the apartment they had rented for the past three months.
The building had been divided in to five flats with the owner, who said his wife had not stopped crying since she had found out that Ms Schunck had be held inside, living at the rear, according The Mirror
Ecclestone was advised by Brazilian officers not to get involved in the negotiations and to stay in Britain for fears his presence could be counterproductive to the case.
He was instructed not to involve an international private company in the hunt for the criminals.
Police revealed the kidnappers allowed Ms Schunck to take a religious artefact of a saint with her because of her faith and to ‘give her strength to withstand the ordeal’. They did not reveal what is was.
According to Sao Paulo Folha, State Governor, Geraldo Alckmin, received daily updates of the progress of the operation.
Statistics by Sao Paulo public security department show the number of kidnappings in the state have fallen from 43 cases in 2012 to 33 in 2015 a drop of 23 percent.
The elite squad of anti-kidnap officers, known as the ‘untouchables,’ was set up several years ago to crack down on abductions. The unit is made up of highly trained, trusted officers.
No shots were fired as three police cars swooped.
Ms Schunk was taken from her home in the wealthy area of Jardim Santa Helena during the early hours of Friday 22 July.
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The couple whose home was used as the hostage hideout for Ms Schunck spoke of their shock and horror to Globo TV, at discovering the victim had been kept locked in a basement flat for ten days without her knowledge.
The tearful and shaking pensioners, Maria de Fátima Oliveira, 61 and her husband Getulio Furtado, 64, said they were completely unaware of the gang’s operations.
They asked the Ecclestone family to forgive them for ‘not knowing’.
Ms Oliveira revealed the kidnappers had been using the basement property for “one month and 15 days” prior to the abduction and had paid two months’ rent for the one bedroom flat. For most of the time the place was left vacant.
She said: “(Amorim) said he worked at night but he didn’t say what he did.
“He said he wanted to live with his girlfriend but I never saw anyone. He would just come and go in his car. One day I went to visit there and he said the girl was asleep. I didn’t see anything unusual.”
The traumatised pensioner said she was at church when the police raided the downstairs flat where Ms Schunck was being held hostage.
She said: “I thank God she came out safely. It hurts me too know this was happening right under my nose and I didn’t see a thing.”
Motor racing mogul Ecclestone has since increased security around his family.
Ecclestone met Ms Shunck’s daughter Fabiana in 2009 in the run-up to the Brazilian Grande Prix in Interlagos, where she was working as marketing director for Brazil’s F1.
The couple wed three years later after he divorced his wife of 25 years, Croatian model Slavica Radic.
The tycoon’s divorce settlement with Ms Radic was estimated to be a whopping £594 million -- reportedly the biggest in UK history.
Formula 1 boss Ecclestone is the UK’s fourth richest person with an estimated £3.2billion fortune.
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