Police arrest 5 more suspects of participation in bank robbery in Criciúma | Rio Grande do Sul

About 30 hooded men caused terror in the city by stealing the safe from a Banco do Brasil branch. Officials were taken hostage, roads were blocked and shots were fired at night with large-caliber weapons.

On Wednesday afternoon, two of them were found on a BR-116 viaduct in São Leopoldo, in the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region. They were transferred to the State Department of Criminal Investigations of the Civil Police of the capital.

The other three suspects were located between the Torres border, on the north coast of Rio Grande do Sul, and Passo de Torres, already in Santa Catarina. The Araranguá police station, located about 35km from Criciúma, received these suspects.

Also on Wednesday afternoon, a 31-year-old woman was arrested in São Paulo on suspicion of participating in the mega-attack. It was located, after a complaint, in Jardim Reimberg, South Zone of São Paulo. With the woman, the police found bags of money from Banco do Brasil, which will be examined.

On Tuesday (1), the Military Police found a shed used by criminals in the neighboring city of Içara, about 9 kilometers from Criciúma.

The biggest assault in SC history

• About 30 hooded people robbed a branch of Banco do Brasil in the Criciúma Center at 11:50 pm on Monday (30). The action lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes.
• People were taken hostage and surrounded by criminals; there were blockages and barriers to prevent the police from arriving.
• A prime minister was injured, had to undergo surgery and remains hospitalized. No one died.
• The criminals fled and some of the money was scattered on the streets. The amount taken and abandoned has not yet been calculated.
• Four neighbors were arrested after collecting R $ 810 thousand that were left on the ground by an explosion during the assault.
• The criminals also left 30 kilograms of explosives. The police do not know the total used.
• In a cornfield on private property in Nova Veneza, northwest of Criciúma, 10 cars used in the robbery were seized. Nine of them were armored. According to the Institute of General Skills (IGP), the vehicles were painted black to camouflage themselves.
• The prime minister, based on the bloodstains found on two cars, estimates that two criminals were injured.
• In a statement, Banco do Brasil said that employees were not injured, that there is no provision for the agency to reopen and that it does not report “amounts subtracted during an attack on its facilities.”
• Santa Catarina authorities say this was the largest assault in the state’s history.

“Videos: See detailed moments of the assault in Criciúma”