Brazil arrests 14 over Paraguay heist

BRASÍLIA: Brazilian police said on Wednesday they had arrested 14 people and seized more than a million dollars of stolen cash after an explosive heist by suspected Brazilian gangsters in neighbouring Paraguay.

Dubbed “the robbery of the century” by officials, Monday’s raid in the city of Ciudad del Este near the Brazilian border left three robbers and a policeman dead.

The robbers made off with US$8 million (RM35 million), said Prosegur, the secure cashtransporting company targeted in the operation saw some 50 gunmen with explosives and military-grade weaponry blast into a secure vault.

On Wednesday, Brazilian federal police said in a report they had seized the equivalent of about US$1.4 million in various currencies as well as firearms and explosives.

An official of the force said on Wednesday that two more suspects had been arrested over the heist, bringing to 14 the total arrested since the raid.

The gunmen included members of First Capital Command, one of Brazil’s most powerful drug gangs, police said.

Shocked Paraguayan officials said it was an unprecedented incident for Ciudad del Este, a trading hub near the borders of Brazil and Argentina in an area linked to drug gangs. – AFP