Aparecida Schunck, mother-in-law of Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, sits in a police vehicle after she was freed in Brazil.
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Shortly after she was freed, Ms Schunck said: “I only ask for these bandits to be jailed so they can’t abduct anyone else in Sao Paulo”.
The pilot, Jorge Eurico da Silva Faria, “planned the kidnapping and knew these people’s routines”, said the Sao Paulo state security service.
Bernie Ecclestone’s mother-in-law has been freed in a police operation after being kidnapped in Brazil. Police tracked her location from phone calls between her family and her kidnappers, and arrested two suspects during the raid.
Ms Schunck, 67, whose daughter, Fabiana Flosi, 38, is married… Two suspects were arrested at the scene.
Investigators from Brazil’s elite anti-kidnapping unit are probing allegations that a helicopter pilot who had worked for the Formula One boss was linked to the plot.
The pair used a Yahoo email account to negotiate the pounds 28 million ransom with Ms Schunck’s family, which led detectives to Azevedo, according to reports. None of the $36.5 million ransom demanded was paid.
Erick Gabriel of Motorsport.com reported that had the ransom been paid, it would have made the kidnapping “the largest ransom sum in Brazilian history”. She was held for 41 days in the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
Neighbors in the comfortable area of Jardim Santa Helena where Aparecida Palmeira keeps a home told AFP that a group of men came pretending to be making a delivery.
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Ecclestone is considered to be one of the richest figures in the world of sports, with an estimated fortune of 3.1 billion USA dollars, according to Forbes magazine.
