Aparecida Schunck was snatched near her home in Sao Paolo, Brazil – four years after the F1 boss had a kidnap threat to daughter Tamara
They ordered Aparecida Schunck’s family to hand over a £28million in sterling – to be placed in four separate plastic bags.
Police confirmed the 67-year-old mum of
Formula One boss Ecclestone ’s wife Fabiana Flosi is being held ransom but have issued a local media blackout to try to prevent her from coming to any harm.
Aparecida was snatched near her home in the middle-class Sao Paulo district of Interlagos, which is near the José Carlos Pace Formula One circuit, on Friday night. She has not been heard from since.
The ransom, 120 million reais, is Brazil’s biggest ever demand. The gang behind the abduction is in contact with Ecclestone and his mum-in-law’s family, who have refused to speak publicly as they try to negotiate her release.
The 67-year-old is believed to have been snatched near to her home in the middle class district of Interlagos, where the country’s José Carlos Pace
Formula 1 circuit is situated.
Ms Flosi is said to be extremely close to her mum.
In a Facebook post on Mother’s Day, she wrote: “Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, and especially mine. There are no words to thank so much love and dedication. Thank you Mum, I love you.”
The abduction comes only four years after the F1 boss, who is the 16th richest man in Britain, advised his family to “beef up” their security following a threat to
his daughter Tamara .
The 32-year-old was led to believe she was the subject of a kidnap attempt in 2012 when £200,000 was demanded by a man posing as a security expert who said he could foil a Middle Eastern plot to kidnap the heiress.
Ecclestone took the threat seriously asking for a face-to-face meeting to hand over the money but the blackmailer insisted on a “drop and pick-up”.
Police eventually caught Martin Peckham, of Colchester, Essex, who later told them he carried out the threat as he needed the money to fund his own wedding.
Ms Ecclestone had appeared in the television show Billion Dollar Girl.
Following the sentence she said in a statement she was left “traumatised” and became “paranoid” and “scared to go out”.
Afterwards Mr Ecclestone said: “At the time it sounded very serious but I was pleased to know it was actually an amateur trying to extract money.”
With under two weeks now to go until Brazil hosts the opening of
the games in Rio de Janeiro , the kidnapping is the latest blow to the Olympics amid grave security fears.
The country is beset with problems that have already marred the 16 day event.
There are increasing fears wealthy visitors will avoid travelling to Rio for the games despite a crackdown by police, including the formation of a special anti-kidnap division.
Crime levels remain high in the country, and earlier this month police in Rio expressed their displeasure with the state government over alleged back-pay issues by erecting a sign near the Rio airport that read, “Welcome to hell.”
“Police and firefighters don’t get paid, whoever comes to Rio de Janeiro will not be safe,” the sign continued.
The country is also in the midst of its worst economic crisis in almost a century.
Kidnapping was common in Brazil a decade ago, with São Paulo seeing an abduction every 27 hours in 2002, but declined after a police crack down.
They are usually carried out by organised crime groups based in favelas - the urban slums which have become a symbol of the country’s struggle with poverty and social inequality.
The most common form of kidnapping is known as “express kidnapping” - in which the victim is frog-marched at gunpoint to a nearby ATM and ordered to withdraw large sums of cash.
Kidnappings reached a peak in 2002, with 321 cases reported in São Paulo alone.
Jason Lee, a Brazilian jiu jitsu fighter who has lived in Rio for almost a year and was returning from a competition when he was stopped by police, said: “I was threatened with arrest if I did not get in their private car and accompany them to two ATMs to withdraw a large sum of money for a bribe.
Father-of-three Ecclestone, 85, is one of sport’s most powerful men who as chief executive of the Formula One Group controls and manages commercial rights to the motor racing brand.
He is estimated to be worth £2.4bn.
He married Ms Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting the now 38-year-old at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
He divorced his former wife of 25 years, Croatian model Slavica Radic, to be with her.
The couple live in England but Ms Schunck, a housewife married a retired civil servant, has remained in her native Brazil.
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