A Russian prisoner who last week fled his penal colony in a helicopter had freely arranged his jail break over the Internet and using mobile phones, investigators said Wednesday.
Alexei Shestakov had been in prison in the northern Vologda region for murder when he was lifted from the colony by a Mi-2 helicopter hijacked by two accomplices on last Thursday.
Investigators found "flagrant violations in the work of the employees" at the penal colony, which allowed Shestakov freedom to live separately from other convicts and communicate unsupervised with the outside world.
Shestakov used "mobile phones, with several SIM-cards, uncontrollably using them to hold conversations and accessing the Internet," which was how he was able to arrange his helicopter rescue and find his partners in crime.
The prisoner also enjoyed an "income, by selling various objects in the colony," such as the banned lighters and mobile phones. He used the money to partly finance his escape, the Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The escapee was re-arrested on the day of his prison break, which was organised outside of the prison by one of the accomplices, a 35-year-old female formerly convicted on a drug charge.
Both accomplices were also eventually arrested when they were walking along a country road with food provisions and fake documents, regional police said.