Bernie Ecclestone’s Pilot Arrested in Mother-in-Law Kidnapping

Chopper pilot suspected of being the criminal mastermind behind it all.

byWill Sabel Courtney|
Bernie Ecclestone’s Pilot Arrested in Mother-in-Law Kidnapping
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The plot thickens. Brazilian police have revealed that Bernie Ecclestone's pilot has been arrested in the kidnapping of the F1 boss's mother-in-law late last month, having been taken into custody on Monday after being tied to the other alleged kidnappers involved in the plot.

Helicopter pilot Jorge Eurico da Silva, who worked for the 85-year-old Ecclestone and his 38-year-old wife Fabiani Flosi, is believed to be the mastermind behind the plot to kidnap Aparecida Schunck, 67, from her house in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and hold her for a £28 million (approximately $36 million) ransom. Schunck was safely extracted by Brazilian police a couple of days ago.

Police reportedly caught onto da Silva's involvement after tracing telephone calls between the pilot and the two other suspects arrested in Schunck's recovery, David Vicente Acevedo and Vitor Oliveira Amorim.

Local media accounts suggest that police became wise to Acevedo and Amorim after coming across both fingerprints and closed-circuit television footage of the dastardly duo changing vehicles mid-getaway. Using that evidence, and additional information captured by listening in on phone conversations between the kidnappers and Schunck's family's family, authorities were able to scoop together enough data to lead them to the criminals' hideout, at which point they were able to swoop in and save Ecclestone's mother-in-law without firing a shot.

After being freed from her kidnapping, Schunck beseeched the courts to lock up her captors. "I only ask for these bandits to be jailed so they can't abduct anyone else in Sao Paulo," she said, according to the BBC.

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