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WATCH: Tracksuit-Clad Mafia Boss Busts Out of Italian Prison Using Bedsheets

Mario Raduano’s jailbreak was blamed on staff shortages by Italian authorities.

A tracksuit-wearing mafioso escaped from a high-security Italian jail on Friday by climbing down a jury-rigged rope made from knotted bedsheets, with surveillance footage capturing his frantic bolt for freedom. Italian authorities acknowledged to the newspaper Il Messaggero that the “daring escape” of Marco Raduano, 40, from the Badu ’e Carros prison in Sardinia had been due to “staff shortages.” After aggressive cuts, around 50 employees had been left to handle 180 prisoners, a staffer told the newspaper. Authorities also pointed to the dearth of eyes when explaining why Raduano’s vanishing act went unnoticed for two hours after it was staged. After clambering two stories down the sheets and dropping to the grass, Raduano, who was serving an 18-year sentence for drug trafficking, sprinted for the prison’s exterior wall, video footage shows. He was then able to scale the wall and disappear into the small city of Nuro, according to The Times of London. “It seems he had everything ready and that the escape was well planned for some time,” said Giovanni Villa, a local correctional officers’ union leader, according to The Telegraph.