Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city and the centre of commerce, for decades has had problems with people being kidnapped and held for ransom, but a dedicated police task force reduced the crime over the last 15 years. Schunck was found tied up in the kidnapper’s apartment, but uninjured.
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The rescue ends after a week-long manhunt for the captors of Aparecida Schunck Flosi Palmeira, the mother of Ecclestone’s Brazilian wife.
The BBC notes that this is a rather unusual outcome for this sort of kidnapping-generally in such high profile cases, the ransom is paid in full to avoid a more tragic outcome. Another newspaper, the weekly Veja, reported that the ransom demand was $36.6 million.
The owner said one of the suspects arrested on Sunday started renting the flat three months ago and had told him he worked night shifts.
According to local media outlets, Brazilian officials say a police operation went down over the weekend – and 2 suspects were arrested… after cops traced them to a house in a poor neighborhood near Sao Paulo.
The couple married in Switzerland and now live in London. She was held for 41 days on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
The kidnapping in Sao Paulo came as the eyes of the world turn to Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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Kidnappings were common in Brazil in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, but dropped with more intensive policing and creation of a specialized anti-kidnapping department.
