Ex-F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone arrested for having gun on plane

Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, 91, has been arrested in Brazil for illegally carrying a gun while boarding a private plane to Switzerland.

Local authorities said in a statement that a “businessman was detained after federal policemen found a gun in his luggage on Wednesday around 9.30pm. in the X-ray area of the Viracopos airport in Campinas.”

They described the weapon as an unloaded 0.32 LW Seecamp pistol, which was seized. Ecclestone admitted the gun was his but said he was unaware it was in his luggage. According to Globo, the weapon was in a shirt pocket and did not have the magazine or ammunition.

Ecclestone was ordered to pay 6,060 Brazilian reals (£1,000) and was free to proceed with his trip to Switzerland.

In Brazil, the crime of illegal possession of a weapon carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

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On social media one person tried to justify his "need for protection" after "his mother-in-law literally got kidnapped in Brazil."

In 2016, Ecclestone's helicopter pilot was arrested on suspicion of being the mastermind behind the plot to kidnap his mother-in-law. Jorge Eurico da Silva Faria, was the president of the Brazilian Helicopter Pilots Association until April 2015 and overlooked all the F1 helicopter operations in Sao Paulo until 2014.

Aparecida Schunk, the mother of Ecclestone's wife Fabiana Flosi, was taken from her São Paulo home by armed robbers who fronted as delivery men.

Police found Schunk tied up in a building close to the pilot's luxury condo. She was safely released back to her family.

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