Advertisement

Gun battle after Brazilian bandits stage brazen $40 million heist in Paraguay

Guards and police inspect the vault blown up on Monday morning in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay - AP
Guards and police inspect the vault blown up on Monday morning in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay - AP

A gun battle has broken out between Brazilian police and members of a gang who pulled off the "robbery of the century" in Paraguay on Monday.

Three gang members were killed and two were injured in the clash, it has been reported.

A convoy of dozens of armed men rolled into Paraguay's lawless Ciudad del Este border town in the early hours of Monday, using grenades, machine guns and explosives to stage a heist worth an estimated $40 million.

One policeman was killed and another injured, and three civilians wounded, in the attack on the Prosegur cash-storage facility.

A handout photo made available by the Brazilian Federal Highway Police, shows a rifle seized in the city of Sao Miguel do Iguacu, Brazil - Credit:  PRF/PARANÁ/EFE
A handout photo made available by the Brazilian Federal Highway Police, shows a rifle seized in the city of Sao Miguel do Iguacu, Brazil Credit: PRF/PARANÁ/EFE

Prosegur said the 30-odd attackers, who arrived at the site around midnight on Sunday and held the vault under siege for three hours, had "war-like equipment".

Cars were set on fire and residents cowered in their homes.

Alejandro Anisimoff, who lives opposite the Prosegur vault, told his local newspaper that he turned to his wife and said: "I don't know if we are going to get out of this alive."

Mr Anisimoff said they were just about to go to bed when they heard a noise, and went to look upstairs from their balcony. Seeing the arrival of "two trucks with lots of people who weren't police," they called the police, and were told to lie face-down on the ground, under their bed.

"We were just relieved our grandchildren weren't with us at the time," he said. Photographs showed the devastation inside his house, as the explosions sent plaster and roof tiles cascading inside.

A vehicle burns after thieves set it on fire during their escape in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay - Credit: AP
A vehicle burns after thieves set it on fire during their escape in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay Credit: AP

Some reported hearing Portuguese being spoken, giving rise to suspicions among locals that the thieves had come across the border from neighbouring Brazil.

Vladimir Jara, spokesman for Paraguay’s interior ministry, said they too believe the robbery was carried out by a Brazilian criminal organisation.

Acribillada. Así quedó la empresa de caudales de la que un grupo comando robó US$ 40 millones conarmas antiaéreas https://t.co/NHMfq0QpGypic.twitter.com/uN6qJhcUbT

— TN - Todo Noticias (@todonoticias) 24 April 2017

No one thought to be directly involved in the heist has so far been detained. 

But the city on the "triple frontier" between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil, home to 320,000 people, has gained an unwelcome reputation for violence linked to drug trafficking.

A rifle seized in the city of Sao Miguel do Iguacu, Brazil following the heist - Credit: EPA
A rifle seized in the city of Sao Miguel do Iguacu, Brazil following the heist Credit: EPA

The city's location means that cocaine from Bolivia flows down the river, before being distributed into the large Brazilian and Argentine metropolises.

Large numbers of tourists travel to the region to visit the Iguazu waterfalls - the largest in the world. But the majority of the tourists stay on the Argentine or Brazilian side of the border, and avoid the Paraguayan city.

Policemen inspect the premises of multinational company Prosegur  - Credit: GUSTAVO GALEANO/AFP
Policemen inspect the premises of multinational company Prosegur after the robbery Credit: GUSTAVO GALEANO/AFP

 

Register Log in commenting policy