Uruguayan authorities are investigating whether a criminal group dismantled after the attempted robbery of a bank in Montevideo maintains links with the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), a criminal faction that operates in Brazil, according to official sources from the Uruguayan government to the local press.
The Ministry of the Interior of Uruguay reported this Wednesday (4) that local police foiled a plan by a criminal group to invade a financial institution through a tunnel excavated from an unoccupied commercial site located in the Old City, the historic center of Montevideo. The operation resulted in the arrest of 11 suspects, including Uruguayans, Brazilians and Paraguayans, who were placed in preventive detention for 180 days, according to a court decision.
According to the Minister of the Interior, Carlos Negro, the group organized itself to commit several crimes, including attempted aggravated robbery, association to commit crime and drug trafficking.
“This is a criminal structure that could have caused severe damage to the country’s financial system,” said the minister at a press conference.
The investigation that culminated in the operation to dismantle the group began with an anonymous complaint about the sale of drugs in the coastal region of Canelones. As the investigation progressed, the Uruguayan police received, in December, an alert from foreign security forces about the possibility of a bank robbery in Montevideo through tunnels, which led to the intensification of the investigation.
In the center of the Uruguayan capital, there are several financial institutions, including the headquarters of Banco República, although authorities have not officially confirmed which bank was the group’s target. The police are keeping the name of the institution confidential while they further analyze the tunnel and the seized materials.
According to the Uruguayan press, investigators are evaluating whether the method used and the profile of some of the detainees indicate a possible connection to transnational criminal organizations, such as the PCC. One of the hypotheses under analysis is that the group has adopted techniques associated with the Brazilian faction, although there is still no official confirmation of this link.
