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BRASILIA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- The interim director of the Anisio Jobim prison, which saw 56 prisoners killed and 112 escape on Jan. 1, was suspended on Tuesday for having allegedly received bribes from prisoners.
The suspension of Jose Carvalho da Silva was confirmed by Sergio Fontes,secretary of public security of the state of Amazonas who said that the interim director had allowed weapons and drugs to enter the prison complex.
On Dec. 10, one of the prisoners who was killed in the riot wrote a letter to the state attorney-general's office denouncing corruption in the prison.
According to the letter, the Familia do Norte (FDN) gang, which has been blamed for the massacre, paid staff to allow weapons, drugs and mobile phones to be slipped into the prison.
Various reports issued before the riot pointed to the imminent risk of violence at Anisio Jobim, which was linked to an escape plan by notable gang leaders.
Intelligence agents found that in the week leading to Christmas, eight guns were brought into the prison by visitors with the help of prison guards.
The Brazilian Ministry of Justice also decided Saturday to immediately return 20 inmates, who had been transferred to a prison in Manaus which is the capital of Amazonas, to their original prison in Itacoatiara, a city in northeastern Amazonas state, due to a lack of security.
The transfer is being made after the 20 prisoners received death threats at their new prison and were caught up in a shocking outburst of violence.
They were sent late last year to the Anisio Jobim prison complex in Manaus, where a riot between two gangs, Familia do Norte and Primer Comando do Capital, left 56 dead on Jan. 1. This week has seen a number of other massacres, with the deadliest in the Monte Cristo prison in the state of Roraima, where 33 prisoners died.
On Monday, four more died in the Puraquequara prison in Manaus.
To restore order in northern prisons, elite commandos were deployed on Tuesday to help reinforce security in prisons in Manaus and Boa Vista, the capital of the neighboring state of Roraima.
The measure is part of the help the federal government promised to seven northern states to reinforce control in their prisons -- Amazonas, Roraima, Acre, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Rondonia and Tocantins.
