Three Men Escape California Jail: ‘They Let Hannibal Lecter Out’

The hunt is on for three men who pulled off an escape from a California jail, according to a CBS report.

Jonathan Tieu, Bac Duong and Hossein Nayeri have all been charged with federal felony counts of escaping prison after they made it out of the Orange County Men’s Central Jail on Friday morning. Tieu, 20, was charged with murder and attempted murder and Duong, 43, was charged with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Both have ties to Vietnamese gangs.

Thirty-seven-year-old Nayeri, who has ties to Iran, is charged with kidnapping and torture. He is also accused of torturing a man with fire with the help of an accomplice in 2012.

“They also poured bleach all over him and in the end, he cut his penis off,” Lt. Dave Sawyer said of Nayeri’s torture accusations.

Nayeri’s trial is set for next month.

“The acts that he committed are nothing short of diabolical,” Orange County prosecutor Heather Brown said. “To lose him to this at the last minute is just unfathomable.”

“My first reaction was ‘Oh, my God, they let Hannibal Lecter out,'” Brown told The Orange County Register.

The men were able to escape by cutting through a steel screen, crawling through plumbing tunnels, climbing a roof and rappelling nearly five floors using linens as a makeshift rope. Authorities believe the three men could be “embedded” somewhere in the community and are reaching out for any information regarding the escapees.