AT THE time it seemed the perfect crime. But the robbers who tunnelled their way into the vault of a central bank building in Brazil and made off with about £40 million are beginning to understand the meaning of the adage that crime does not pay. Since the heist in August, during which the gang tunnelled 80 metres (262ft) into the bank’s safe and got away with three tonnes of banknotes, their success has attracted the attention not only of the police but also of members of Brazil’s violent underworld.

Luiz Fernando Ribeiro, the alleged mastermind of the robbery, has already met a grisly end. Police believe that Ribeiro, a drug trafficker from São Paulo, put up £125,000 to fund the operation, for which he received more than £6 million.

Ribeiro had started to enjoy his new wealth, splashing out on a mansion in Morumbi, an exclusive neighbourhood in São Paulo, when he was kidnapped outside one of the city’s nightclubs on October 7. His family paid a £250,000 ransom, but Ribeiro’s badly tortured body was found two weeks later, dumped on a roadside.

Police have arrested a rival drug trafficker for involvement in the crime, which they believe was aimed at uncovering where Ribeiro had stashed his share of the loot. Several police officers were also arrested for their suspected involvement in the killing. Last weekend a second kidnapping connected with the theft took place. The victim was the wife of a security official at the central bank building in Fortaleza, where the robbery took place.

Deusimar Neves Queiroz is under arrest after confessing that he had sold information about the building’s security measures. Marli Queiroz was taken last Friday from her home near Fortaleza. Her assailants threatened to kill her children before driving her 150km (93 miles) to the house of her former sister-in-law. There the gang burst in and ordered the family to hand over Queiroz’s share of the money. A reported £500,000 was dug up in the back garden and handed over to the gang. Senhora Queiroz was released but police could not find her until Monday.

Authorities say that they are considering holding Senhora Queiroz and her sister-in-law as accomplices to a crime, because her husband had confessed to receiving only £50,000 from the gang for betraying the bank’s security measures. Other criminals are closing in on the gang, and the police have apprehended several other suspects in the robbery.

Weeks after the crime, five men were found in a house in Fortaleza with about £3 million of the central bank’s money hidden behind false walls and under the floors. Investigators believe that this was the team responsible for digging the tunnel, for which each member was paid between £500,000 and £1 million.

Other accomplices have been charged with transporting and laundering the money. But police say that they are still seeking up to 15 other suspects and have recovered only a little more than 10 per cent of the money.

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