Brazilian police foil plot to rob bank using 500-metre tunnel complete with rails, lights, and ventilation

The tunnel was half a kilometre long
REUTERS
Eleanor Rose6 October 2017

Would-be robbers dug a tunnel half a kilometre long in an attempt to steal £250 million from a bank branch in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Brazilian police foiled the daring plot, but not before the gang spent nearly £1 million and about four months on the underground passage complete with lighting, ventilation and railway tracks.

The tunnel dug by the 20-strong gang ran from a rented home to a branch of government-owned Banco do Brazil, according to investigators.

The Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department said in a statement that agents had been monitoring the gang for three months but only discovered the tunnel on Monday.

Police attend the entrance to the tunnel
REUTERS

By then the tunnel was complete. But police arrested 16 suspects before they could pull off the heist.

They allegedly told officers they had hoped to steal the equivalent of £250 million.

Investigator Fabio Pinheiro Lopes told the Guardian that, had it been successful, the robbery would have been "the biggest bank robbery in the world".

Twelve years ago a different gang tunnelled into a bank vault in Fortaleza and made off with £54 million in Brazilian reals.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT