- Police were called after delivery driver saw a metal rod poking through ground
Argentinian police have managed to foil what could have been one of the largest money heists in the country’s recent history after uncovering a 240-yard tunnel that led to the vault of a bank in the suburbs of Buenos Aires.
But it was a humble delivery worker who helped thwart the robbery in the town of San Isidro on Thursday, after he spotted a rogue metallic spike out of the cobbled road, prompting him to call the police.
Officers discovered that the rod was part of an intricate tunnel network that ran from an empty warehouse all the way to the safe deposit room of a Banco Macro branch in San Isidro.
CCTV footage shows the moment something catches the delivery driver’s attention as he spots the iron rod protruding from the ground, which he reportedly had scratched the chassis of his van.
People from surrounding shops can be seen approaching him, also curious about the mysterious stick.
This is the moment a delivery driver noticed a metal rod poking from under the ground, prompting him to call the police, who discovered an underground tunnel leading to a bank in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Inside the underground 150 metre long tunnel in the suburbs of the Argentine capital
Little did they know that they had just discovered a 4.5 metre deep secret tunnel, foiling what San Isidro Mayor Ramon Lanus says could have been the ‘robbery of the century’.
Police officers arrived at the scene and called in excavators, which drilled through a layer of cobblestones and cement in order to reach the underground system.
It is believed that the rod was used by the criminals underground to get a sense of where they were.
Another clip shows the sophisticated tunnel network, which had wood pannelling and air pipes so that oxygen could enter the tunnel, as well as what appear to be containers filled with cement.
Speaking to CNN Radio yesterday morning, Lanus said that ‘it was obviously a very sophisticated and time-consuming engineering job, it was not improvised. Looking at the tunnel, I can say that it was not something that happened overnight’.
Excavators sent in to dig up secret tunnel in San Isidro, Argentina, which is believed to have been built to carry out a bank robbery
Exterior of the tunnel created to rob a bank in San Isidro, which was discovered when delivery worker spotted a metal rod poking out
Screengrab of clip that shows the intricate tunnel network
Police discovered the tunnel leading to a branch of Banco Macro bank in San Isidro on Thursday.The tunnel was said to be still 100 metres from its intended destination of the bank’s safe deposit room
Inside the tunnel, police found building materials and mattresses, leading authorities to believe that the underground operation has been ongoing for months
vVew of a hole in a street in front of a branch of Banco Macro in San Isidro, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, on August 8, 2024
Argentine authorities discovered Thursday, in an unusual incident, an elaborate tunnel more than 150 meters long, presumably built to rob a bank in the town of San Isidro, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires, according to a local police statement
Delivery driver who helped uncover the tunnel talks about how he discovered the metal spike
He also noted that bags filled with waste, building materials, mattresses, and even a kitchen were discovered in the depths of the tunnel.
Lanus said tha the Attorney General’s Office and the police are gathering evidence to find out the culprits who are behind the tunnel network.
While no arrests have been made yet, investigators believe an experienced criminal network is behind the planned heist.
Officers plan to question the owner of the warehouse from which the tunnel’s builders are thought to have entered and exited over a period of several months.
Bank safe deposits are a prime target for robbers in Argentina, as they often contain large sums of undeclared money belonging to Argentines looking to protect their fortune from soaring inflation.
The planned heist is reminiscent of the 2006 heist at Rio de Acassuso bank in another Buenos Aires suburb, in which a group of criminals stole close to £15 million from safe deposit boxes and managed to escape on inflatable boats through storm drains.