Revealed: Oscar Pistorius' Czech Gangster Prison Buddy Planned Audacious £12m Break Out Involving His Own Mother, a Private Plane, a Gun Hidden in a Jail Treadmill, and a New Life in Argentina
Krejcir, 46, shared a gym with Pistorius at Kgosi Mampuru prison, Pretoria
Plan was to bribe female warden £25,000 and board helicopter to Swaziland
He would then travel to Mozambique by road and Argentina on a private jet
Escape foiled when gun, knife and plans of the jail were found in his room
Daily Mail UK 5 JAN 2019.
Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir's escape was foiled when a handgun, ammunition, prison guard's uniform and detailed plans of the jail were found during a raid on his cell.
Krejcir, 46, who once shared a private gym with Pistorius and was filmed playing football with him in their high security prison in South Africa, is on trial for a string of charges including two of murder.
Concealed weapon: Radovan Krejcir's fourth escape attempt was foiled when guards found a prison guard's uniform, detailed plans of the prison and a handgun - hidden inside his personal treadmill (pictured) - during a raid on his cell
Escape attempt: Guards also found a knife, screwdriver (to take apart the treadmill) and a ledger listing the names of the key witnesses and investigators involved in cases against him
Gangster's tools: A taser gun, pepper spray, ten mobile phones (pictured), SIM cards and a memory stick had all been gathered in preparation for Krejcir's escape
Prison buddies: Jailed Paralympian Oscar Pistorius and Czech gangster Krejcir struck up an unlikely friendship at Kgosi Mampuru prison, where they were incarcerated as neighbours for six months, until Krejcir was moved to Zonderwater prison in April
Prison recreation: An extraordinary video, taken by an inmate on a mobile phone, showed Pistorius (white T-shirt) and Krejcir playing football in the concrete prison yard.
Police spokesman, Lieutenant Solomon Makgale, confirmed a 9mm handgun was found taped inside Krejcir's prison treadmill.
He could not say whether it was the same one he and Pistorius shared at Kgosi Mampuru prison, Pretoria, where they struck up an unlikely friendship before Krejcir was transferred 'for security reasons' in April.
A screwdriver was needed to dismantle the equipment, he told MailOnline, adding that Krejcir's latest bid for freedom was the fourth attempt to be foiled by the authorities.
Another police spokesman said government officials, prison guards, other inmates and allies from the criminal underworld had been co-opted to help spring the notorious racketeer.
Two female wardens and Krejcir's own mother were among a number of women involved the plot to free him, according to reports.
South African newspaper The Star reported that at least three members of jail staff - who guarded the mobster - were paid £25,000 each to assist his escape, which was thwarted following a tip-off to prison bosses.
It said Krejcir's escape plan involved overpowering the 'bought-off' female guard during a visit to a doctor's appointment
A high-powered Mercedes and a helicopter were on standby to whisk the fugitive over the border into Swaziland to recover at a luxury hotel.
From there, he would travel to Mozambique by road and board a private jet to Argentina to begin a new life as a free man.
Police estimated that all the bribes, the car, helicopter and jet added up to £12m.
The gangster's lawyer, Annelene van den Heever, denied her client had ever planned to escape but the haul taken from the gangster's room contradicts her claim.
A knife, taser gun, pepper spray, screwdriver, blades, ten mobile phones and SIM cards, a memory stick and plans of Zonderwater prison had all been gathered in preparation for the escape.
Bribed: Two female wardens were paid £25,000 each to assist the escape of notorious gangster, Krejcir (left), the Star newspaper reported (warden in this photograph was not involved in any way)
Prison raid: A memory stick (pictured) was also found inside the gangster's room, following a tip-off to prison bosses
Tragic death: Former Paralympic athlete Pistorius (right) was jailed for the culpable homicide of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp (left)
Along with the 9mm pistol and ammunition, a ledger listing the names of key state witnesses and investigators involved in the cases against Krejcir was also seized.
One of the adversaries Krejcir is charged with attempting to assassinate has already publicly vowed to hunt down and kill him, if one of his escape bids ever proves successful.
The gangster, who has been behind bars in South Africa for two years, has survived multiple attempts on his life, including a '007-style' assassination bid involving pipe guns concealed behind the number plate of a luxury vehicle.
He has yet to be sentenced for the crimes of which he has so far been convicted, relating to attempted murder, drugs trafficking and kidnapping. He still faces three further charges of murder and two of conspiracy to murder.
Krejcir and seven co-accused appeared in the high court in Johannesburg for the start of a murder and conspiracy trial.
The ebullient mobster informed a reporter for The Star that the raid on his cell was part of a wider plot against him.
'It is a plan of the conspiracy, I told you. I will comment further later,' he told the paper, adding that he was 'still surviving' despite his isolation in jail.
According to South Africa's Sunday Independent, Krejcir is now being held in isolation in an underground cell while his collaborators are hunted.
Pistorius and Krejcir first met on the hospital wing of Kgosi Mampuru, where they were incarcerated as neighbours for six months, before Krejcir was moved to Zonderwater prison.
Their friendship was first revealed when Krejcir wrote a letter to prison authorities complaining that a treadmill and exercise bike – that he shared with the double amputee – had been removed from the corridor outside his cell.
An extraordinary video of the pair playing football in the jail's concrete prison yard, taken by an inmate on a mobile phone, revealed an easy familiarity between the men.
Notorious: Prisoners are lined up inside the Kgosi Mampuru prison, during a surprise raid by prison officials checking for drugs and other contraband
Straight from a 007 plot: A VW Polo was fitted with remote-controlled guns under the number plate in a daring bid to kill Czech tycoon Radovan Krejcir in July 2013
Krejcir admitted during a recent court appearance that he missed the shamed sporting legend and joked to reporters 'we must play for Chelsea when we're released'.
Only last month, it emerged that a computer hard drive, linked to an investigation into Krejcir, had been confiscated from Pistorius' own cell following a dawn raid on his cell.
Other inmates at Kgosi Mampuru – which is overcrowded and dominated by gang violence – have complained about the special treatment enjoyed by the men on the hospital wing.
The newspaper, which first published the video of them taking turns to be goalkeeper and striker, quoted a prisoner who claimed they were getting preferential treatment because they are both white.
'We are all in prison and we must be treated the same. The colour of your skin should not be a passport to get on the sweet side of the law,' he told the paper.
Krejcir used a false passport to move to South Africa eight years ago and since then been linked to the unsolved murders of, among others, a luxury car exporter, the owner of a string of strip joints and a known drug dealer.
News of his foiled prison escape comes as Pistorius continues to languish behind bars despite becoming eligible for parole.
He was scheduled to walk out of the sprawling facility in the South African capital but his transfer into house arrest has twice been delayed amid accusations of political interference.
Pistorius was found guilty of manslaughter but cleared of murdering Reeva Steenkamp, then 29, after shooting her four times through a locked lavatory door on Valentine's Day 2013.
He claimed his gun fired off accidentally after he mistook her for a burglar.