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 The escaped prisoners were identified as Hossein Nayeri, 37,
Jonathan Tieu, 20, and Bac Duong, 43, who were housed together in a
68-man dormitory-style unit of the jail before slipping away early
on Friday morning, Orange County Sheriff's Department officials
said.
"The three escapees ... are dangerous criminals," Sheriff Sandra
Hutchens said in a statement.
The trio cut through a steel grate inside their unit, climbed
through a plumbing conduit and up to the jailhouse roof, then used
bedsheets to lower themselves four stories before disappearing,
according to sheriff's spokesman, Lieutenant Jeff Hallock.
Video surveillance footage examined later showed a glimpse of the
men before they were last seen inside the jail earlier that morning,
Hallock said.
 As of Sunday night, local, state and federal authorities searching
for the three men were pursuing a number of leads but had received
no reports of sightings or other "significant" clues to their
whereabouts, he said.
Their "sophisticated" escape was apparently planned for weeks or
months and marked the first breakout from the jail since 1989, the
lieutenant said.
The jail, housing about 900 inmates, is located in the Orange County
seat of Santa Ana, about 9 miles south of Anaheim, the Los
Angeles-area suburb best known as home to Disneyland.
Hallock said the men could be armed but declined to disclose what
mode of transportation they may be using. He also said authorities
are investigating whether the prisoners had help inside or outside
the jail.
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The jailbreak recalled the escape of two convicted murderers from a
maximum-security prison in upstate New York last year. A three-week
manhunt ended with the fatal shooting of one of the inmates and the
capture of the second a mile from the Canadian border.
Nayeri, an Iranian national, is one of four people accused of
kidnapping and torturing a marijuana dispensary owner, the Orange
County Register reported. He had been jailed without bond since
September 2014 after being arrested by the FBI in Prague.
Tieu has been held at the facility since October 2013, charged with
a murder that authorities believe was gang-related. Duong was jailed
without bond last month, charged with attempted murder and other
offenses.
(Additional reporting by Frank McGurty in New York and Brendan
O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)
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