Authorities in Sao Paulo, Brazil have had to resort to a special operation to rid the city of a major mole problem. They instituted something called "Operation Mole Faction" and it produced immediate results.
They arrested 28 people tunneling into two banks.
The suspects were all members of the gang called First Command of the Capital, or PCC from its Portuguese initials, police said.
Almost 200 people have died in Sao Paulo since May in three separate waves of attacks by the PCC on police stations, banks, and government buildings. The gang is also tied to Brazil's biggest-ever bank robbery in 2005.
At the time of the arrests in downtown Porto Alegre, 22 people were digging an 88-yard (80-metre)-long tunnel into the safes of two banks.
"This was a very strong setback for them because they were caught with what they value the most, the goal of their crime, which is money," Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos said, according to Agencia Estado local news agency.
Law enforcement officials seized tunneling equipment and 20,500 reais ($9,579), the Federal Police said in a statement.
Police arrested four other people as part of its "Operation Mole Faction," including Antonio Carlos da Silva and Lucivaldo Laurindo, members of the PCC the police said were tied to the $70 million heist at a central bank building in Ceara state in 2005.
Those are some serious moles alright. I kind of get the impression that Brazil is having more than a little trouble with criminal gangs at the moment.
