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The Banco Central burglary at Fortaleza was the robbery from the vault of the Banco Central branch located in Fortaleza, in the state of Ceará, Brazil, on August 6, 2005. On a Saturday, a group of burglars tunneled into the bank and withdrew five containers of 50-real notes, with an estimated worth of R$164,755,150 (about 71.6 million USD at the 2005 exchange rate) and weighing about 3.5 tons.

It is one of the world's greatest heists. As a result of the burglary, of the 25 people thought to be connected, just eight had caught, and R$20 million recovered, up to the end of 2005. Besides, numerous of the gang thought to have been victims of kidnapping, and one, Luis Fernando Ribeiro, believed to have been the mastermind of the plan, was killed by kidnappers after a ransom paid. Arrests and recovery of the money, as well as kidnapping and death of the perpetrators, have been continuous, though most are still unaccounted for.

Banco Central is the Brazilian central bank, instructed with control of the money supply. The money in the vault was to be examined to determine whether it should be recirculated or destroyed. The bills were not numbered sequentially, making them almost impossible to trace.

Source: Wikipedia