Federal authorities decided Monday to transfer inmates out of a Brownsville, Texas jail from which three federal prisoners escaped late Friday.
It's the second time in two months that U.S marshals have pulled inmates from a Cameron County jail. Officials did not immediately say where the inmates would be transferred.
Meanwhile, opponents in the Cameron County sheriff's race scoffed Monday at Sheriff Conrado Cantu's notions that the latest jailbreak was an inside job aimed at making him look bad.
"He ought to be focusing on what's going on inside the jail instead of what's going on outside," said Abel Perez Jr., a constable who is one of Cantu's four challengers in the March 9 primary.
Cantu said the department is investigating all possibilities, including that the inmates had help making what would have been a noisy roof escape from the downtown Brownsville jail Friday evening.
"This is real suspicious," Cantu said Monday. "The guards are sitting there 15 feet from where the hole is and they couldn't hear them banging on the roof? Somebody had to plant this."
Maximo Manuel Ravell, 39; Mario Alberto Hernandez-Villarreal, 22; and Francisco Ramirez Guerrero, 21, were still missing Monday evening after escaping from the Ruben M. Torres Sr. Jail, a decades-old structure less than two miles from the Mexican border.