With heavily armed gangs, three cities in the interior of São Paulo experienced a day marked by mega-robberies this Monday (8). In less than 24 hours, bandits exploded and took R$200,000 from a bank branch in São Pedro and three armored cars were attacked on highways in Cordeirópolis and Piracicaba, all cities located in the metropolitan region of Piracicaba.
After the attacks, two people were arrested and a suspect died in a confrontation with agents in the early hours of today (9). The Civil Police are still investigating whether the crimes were carried out by the same gang.
According to investigators, the attacks were carried out by the same group that carries out “new cangaço” style robberies in the region.
Sequence of robberies
Still in the early hours of Monday (9), the Banco do Brasil branch in São Pedro was robbed by a criminal organization armed with rifles and explosives. Images show that part of the establishment was destroyed after the action. According to the police, the criminals managed to steal around R$200,000.00. There was an exchange of gunfire between the military police and the robbers, but no one was arrested. There were also no injuries in this action.
While the police were carrying out searches to try to identify the bank robbers, bandits seized two armored cars from the company Blue Angels on the Washington Luís highway, near the municipality of Cordeirópolis. Just like the assault on the agency, this robbery was also carried out by several heavily armed men using bombs.
Images from highway security cameras recorded the moment the men removed the bags from the vehicles. The amount stolen was not reported by the police. During the action, the thieves abandoned two stolen cars with altered identification signs. See the video below .
Subsequently, still during the mobilization of police forces against the robberies, a new attack on an armored car, from the company Protege, was carried out on Rodovia Luiz de Queiróz, in the city of Piracicaba. However, the robbery was thwarted by the reaction of the company's security guards. In this action, the bandits also abandoned another vehicle on fire.
Seizure of arsenal and cars
After the events, civil police officers from the Piracicaba Specialized Criminal Investigations Division (DEIC) and BAEP military personnel from the same region intensified searches throughout the city's metropolitan region.
Investigators had already identified two cars that would have been used by the bandits in the robbery of the Banco do Brasil branch, in addition to finding that two known robbers had participated in the action.
According to the agents, Anderson de Albuquerque Barros Pinheiro, known as Cachorro, Diego Evangelista, known as Gordão, and former military police officer Ritchie de Souza Lima are being investigated for robberies of the same style, the so-called new cangaço, also in the Piracicaba region.
An approach by a Military Police team at the Rodovia dos Bandeirantes tollbooth, near the city of Hortolândia, identified a black Land Rover car, which would be identical to the one used in the Banco do Brasil robbery. The person driving the car was one of the suspects already identified by Deic investigators, former PM Ritchie de Souza Lima.
Devices known as “miguelitos”, used by thieves to puncture car tires, were seized inside the car. In new gangaço actions, such as the one that occurred in São Pedro, the gang scatters objects to hinder the arrival of police cars at the robbery sites.
According to the incident record, after approaching the suspect, police officers went to an address indicated by him as his home, in the city of Sumaré, also in the interior. At the scene, BAEP police officers in Campinas reportedly clashed with a man who was not identified. The man succumbed to his injuries and died at the scene.
Four 5.56 and 7.62 caliber rifles were seized in the house, a large quantity of ammunition, ballistic protection vests, radio communicators, explosives identical to those used and seized in the Banco do Brasil robbery, a bag containing more than R$ 110 thousand on banknotes of different denominations, balaclava-type caps, gas masks and cell phones.
Another suspect involved in the bank robbery, Társio Rodrigo da Silva, was already wanted by the courts and was arrested in the Indaiatuba region. A stolen motorcycle with tampered identification signs was seized from his possession. According to sources, the prisoner was involved in the robbery at the house of the mayor of Indaiatuba.
Another car used in the Banco do Brasil robbery was seized in the city of Analândia. According to police officers involved in the action, among the stolen cars that were seized, one belonged to Delegate Da Cunha (Progressistas), federal deputy from São Paulo.
The two men located were arrested in the act and taken to the Deic headquarters in Piracicaba. The Civil Police reported that investigations continue to identify the other members of the criminal organization and confirm the possible link between all the bank and armored vehicle robberies that occurred in the region in recent months.
Source: CNN Brasil

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