The morning of August 8, 2005, in Ceará, Brazil, marked the start of a lengthy investigation that would continue for several years. The authorities discovered that a bunch of robbers had robbed the Central Bank’s vault of roughly $70 million the next morning.
‘The Great Robbery of Brazil’s Central Bank,’ a Netflix documentary, examines how the authorities tracked down the various culprits.
Antonio Jussivan Alves dos Santos, called the Alemo, and Moises Teixeira da Silva was thought to be the masterminds behind the theft. So, how about we find out where they might be today?
Read Also: Who Killed ‘Luis Fernando Ribeiro aka Fernandinho’? How Did He Die?
Antonio Jussivan Alves and Moises Teixeira da Silva: Who Are They?
The crew rented a residence about a block away from the bank and put up a bogus business there approximately three months before the crime.
Using this as a pretext, a group of bandits excavated an underground tunnel over the course of three months, choosing a weekend when the bank was closed.
The attackers snatched around $70 million in old notes after breaking through the vault wall and fleeing before the personnel found the opening in the vault.
The group did, however, leave a prepaid phone card at the property, which the cops utilised to trace down several of the suspects via phone numbers and calls. Alemo was detained in February 2008 in Braslia, Brazil, where he had been living.
He was working at a tyre store and had made every effort to evade the cops by assuming a phoney identity and investing the proceeds of the robbery.
Alemo was one of the masterminds of the Central Bank robbery, enlisting the help of other members. Not only that, but he was also charged with a robbery in August of 2000.
Alemo and another man were accused of robbing a law company while pretending to be its clients at the time.
Moises, on the other hand, was regarded as a tunnelling expert. He and about 100 other inmates are said to have escaped from prison in 2001 after helping to excavate a tunnel. Moises was serving a 25-year sentence for robbery at the time.
Then, in October 2004, at least eight men in masks robbed a money-transporting company.
Moises was also accused of being involved in the heist. The men constructed a tunnel from a neighbouring house and utilised it to gain access to the enterprise, brandishing semiautomatic weapons.
The gang made off with $1.6 million and was in and out in just ten minutes. Moises was apprehended in August 2009 after a year of surveillance. Authorities traced him down at a Vila Mariana condominium in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Moises, on the other hand, had not made it easy for himself over the years, opting for hair implants, neck surgery, and even meeting his wife through a third party.
The cops identified the automobile he was driving and devised a scheme to lure him down to the building’s garage. Finally, Moises was apprehended, making him the last of the crime’s masterminds to be apprehended.
He said at the time that he had already given 1.5 million Reals to civil police officers out of the 2.5 million he had made during the heist. This was consistent with what had happened to the other participants.
Alemo’s brother was kidnapped and tortured for two weeks before being freed for ransom money in April 2006. At the time, the kidnappers mistook the brother for Alemo.
Fernandinho, the putative financier of the scheme, was also suspected of being assassinated by corrupt cops.
Must Read: Who Was The Mastermind In Brazil’s Central Bank Robbery? How Much Money Was Robbed?
Antonio Jussivan Alves and Moises Teixeira da Silva: Where Are They Now?
Approximately 119 defendants were found guilty on numerous offences, including money laundering, conspiracy, aggravated theft, and illegal possession of a firearm, after a lengthy judicial process.
Alemo was originally sentenced to a total of 130 years in jail. However, many defendants’ sentences were reduced on appeal, including Alemo and Moises.
The defendants contended that they couldn’t be found guilty of being a member of a criminal organisation until the phrase was defined by Brazilian courts (which happened only in 2013).
As a result, in August 2020, Alemo’s sentence was reduced to 35 years & 10 months. He tried to break out of prison in 2017 when some of his buddies on the outside attempted to break him out.
Alemo, on the other hand, was shot and apprehended. He is still detained at the Penitenciária Federal de Catanduvas in Brazil, according to a report dated April 2021.
Moises, on the other hand, was given a 16-year sentence for his role, which was eventually reduced to 14 years in 2020. He appears to be serving his time at a Brazilian jail facility.
