How Brazil's Biggest-Ever Bank Heist Was Foiled
- Sixteen men built 2,000-foot tunnel to Banco do Brasil vault
- Police arrested them as they prepared to rob $318 million
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Brazil’s police arrested 16 men tunneling toward a vault containing 1 billion reais ($318 million) and who were on the verge of pulling off the largest-ever bank robbery in the country’s history.
An investigative police unit had been monitoring the criminals’ activities as they manufactured the metal structure to support the 600-meter (2,000-foot) tunnel, laid tracks to cart out the banknotes and ran electricity underground, according to a statement from its press office. The men were mere hours away from drilling into the vault of state-owned Banco do Brasil in Sao Paulo when they were arrested on Monday, police said.