High profile prisoners can present a variety of problems for prison officials, and there have been few prisoners more problematic than Czech gangster Radovan Krejcir.
Krejcir was imprisoned three years ago for racketeering in South Africa. Since then, he has been held in the Kgosi Mampuru prison in Pretoria, South Africa, though only thanks to the hard work of South African corrections officers. Krejcir has made four attempts to escape the prison, the most recent of which was foiled only thanks to a random search of his cell.
Officers found a 9mm pistol in Krejcir’s cell, smuggled into the prison inside of a treadmill. They found a knife and screwdriver used to remove the pistol from the treadmill and 10 different cellphones that would have helped Krejcir make his way to the South African border. Alongside this, a memory stick was found containing the names of witnesses who had testified against Krejcir. Authorities believe that they would have been targeted had Krejcir escaped.
Further investigation of the plot turned up a large-scale conspiracy with $12 million invested in it. Krejcir had bribed three different guards with $25,000 each, and procured a plane that would have whisked him away to Swaziland. After recovering there in a luxury hotel, Krejcir would have been taken to Argentina where he would resume his criminal activities.
Kgosi Mampuru has come under some fire for continuing to allow Krejcir to reside in the lower security hospital ward. However, Krejcir must be kept apart from the general population of the prison for his own safety. Krejcir has accrued a number of enemies over the years who have made multiple assassination attempts on the gangster, including a particularly Hollywood-esque attempt involving guns hidden behind the license plate of a car outside a courthouse.
It is the responsibility of the corrections officers at Kgosi Mampuru to strike a careful balance between keeping Krejcir safe, while simultaneously keeping him from escaping and once again becoming a danger to society. Thankfully, Krejcir’s recent brazen attempt has only served to increase scrutiny on the gangster. Hopefully, they will be able to keep the wily criminal in and assassins out.