Spanish police have prevented a planned jailbreak that would have used a radio controlled zeppelin to free a 52-year-old inmate who is suspected of trafficking cocaine.

According to police, three people have been arrested over a plan to use a 13-foot zeppelin
to carry night vision goggles, camouflage paint and climbing gear to the Italian prisoner to allow him to scale the Las Palmas prison wall at night. From there he would have been transported to safety by car.

The prisoner was serving time after being caught in control of a sea-plane carrying a cargo of 440 pounds of cocaine from Mauritania to Spain.

A statement issued by Spanish police outlines the next stage of the plan:

He would be transported to a foreign country where he would hide out while he waited for false identity documents and would continue to oversee the shipment of drugs to our country.

The plan came unstuck when police discovered a camp in a camouflaged tent on a hill 600 meters from the prison. It is alleged that the three people who were arrested in the camp had been observing the prison through binoculars and telephoto lenses for weeks.

The three men, two Spaniards and a Uruguayan had protected their clandestine camp site with motion sensing equipment.

According to authorities, the plan was discovered when a package containing the inflatable zeppelin was intercepted en route to the Canary Islands (where the prison is located) from Bergamo. [Telegraph]

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