-from news.com.au-

By Crain Bildstien

Corrections officers believe one of South Australia’s most notorious drug lords planned

a daring James Bond-style helicopter escape from jail

Prison guards have told The Advertiser a high-profile inmate was urgently transferred from Mobilong to Yatala following intelligence a helicopter would land in the grounds for a movie-like breakout.

They claim the prisoner, understood to be Pietroantonio Cerullo, 62, has since been under constant surveillance as authorities try to discover how the elaborate plot was hatched.

Sources say Mobilong, where guards are not armed, recently has had large numbers of mobile phones smuggled into the medium-security facility, which could have been used to organise an airlift to freedom.

“If a chopper had landed, it would have gotten very ugly very quickly - all hell would have broken loose,” a prison guard told The Advertiser on the condition of anonymity.

“This is an open-space prison in the middle of nowhere - it is clearly vulnerable to a take-over by an armed helicopter simply dropping in.”

A helicopter was used in a successful prison break in New South Wales in 1999.

Lovestruck librarian Lucy Dudko hijacked a chopper during a joyflight and forced the pilot to land in Silverwater jail to pick up armed robber John Killick. The pair spent 45 days on the run.

Correctional Services deputy chief executive Greg Weir confirmed in an emailed statement his department had received intelligence about an escape plan from Mobilong and a prisoner - in jail for drug offences - was moved to Yatala. “This type of information and the action is not uncommon within prison systems,” he said.

Mr Weir, however, rejected prison guard claims the department’s intelligence included information about the use of a helicopter. While he declined to name the alleged prisoner involved in the escape plan, The Advertiser has been told it is Italian-born Cerullo, who is serving a 20-year sentence after police discovered more than 300kg of cocaine at his Prospect home in 2004. It was one of Australia’s biggest drug busts.

Despite Mr Weir’s denial about the use of a helicopter, guards claim the potential breakout highlights the need for Mobilong to have an urgent plan to deal with any future attempted escapes.

“When prisoners plan things, they plan them well and it is just scary to contemplate how easily this could have happened,” a long-serving officer told The Advertiser.

“The frightening thing is how 300 other prisoners would react to watching one of them being hoisted out by chopper - we could have had a riot and a real crisis on our hands. We are going to end up with a very serious issue one day where officers will get hurt.”

The Public Service Association, which represents correctional services officers, was last week involved in a lock-down at Yatala after inmates were housed in the infirmary because there were insufficient cell block beds.

Mr Weir conceded the prison system was “reaching capacity” but the department was examining options to house prisoners until new facilities for 500 inmates become available in 2011.