The Drug Enforcement Administration released the aerial surveillance video that helped capture escaped inmate Danilo Cavalcante on Wednesday.
The DEA plane was equipped with thermal imaging and was able to pick up the heat signature of Cavalcante trying to hide west of PA Route 100, north of Prizer Road around 1 a.m. the morning of his capture.
Stormy weather then moved in and grounded the plane, but tactical teams formed a tight perimeter to lock him in.
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The capture of Danilo Cavalcante
“Tactical teams made a decision to secure that area, that smaller area, as best they could and hold it through the storm and until we could bring additional resources in and bring aircraft back overhead to ensure that we did not have an issue with an escape,” Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Colonel George Bivens said.
The weather cleared hours later, and that's when the officers advanced on him before he had a chance to try and escape again.
With the help of a customs and border patrol team and their K9 named Yoda, Cavalcante was quickly found and taken into custody.
On the Wednesday afternoon of his capture, Cavalcante was transferred to SCI Phoenix, a maximum-security prison in Montgomery County where he will serve his mandatory life sentence.
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