Carlos Negro confirmed that they prevented the robbery of the century in Ciudad Vieja

By Ashley Benavidez

The export of organized crime to the Montevideo underground

The tranquility of the Uruguayan capital was shaken by the confirmation of a criminal plot that seems to have been extracted from a series of digital platforms. The Minister of the Interior, Carlos Negro, was present at the intersection of Colón and 25 de Mayo to give details of an investigation that had been brewing since December. According to the leader, the robbery of the century in Old City It was avoided thanks to cooperation with police agencies from neighboring countries, which shows that Montevideo is on the radar of highly dangerous international gangs.

What was found beneath a seemingly harmless premises was an engineering work dedicated to crime. The gang, made up of Brazilians and Paraguayans, rented the property in mid-2025 under a facade of normality that managed to deceive neighbors and authorities for months. The objective of the robbery that shook Montevideo It was none other than a financial institution in the area, which they intended to access by connecting a homemade tunnel with the city's sewer system.

The international connection and the data that saved the vaults

It is alarming that the national security depends, to a large extent, on information arriving from outside. He Minister Carlos Negro He admitted that the alerts from the police in the region were the starting point to dismantle this plan. This leaves an uncomfortable question in the air: how much “earth” moved in the historic center without local surveillance systems noticing absolutely anything? The Old City witnessing a historic coup was not planned in an afternoon; It required months of logistics that went unnoticed under the nose of the General Directorate of Repression of Illicit Drug Trafficking.

The operation was forceful but left loose ends. Of the nine detainees, five were captured in the vicinity of the tunnel, some even trying to escape through the sewers in a bizarre and desperate scene. Four other people involved fell in the El Pinar resort, which shows that the gang had an accommodation and logistics infrastructure that extended outside the capital. While searching for one person who is still wanted, the country wonders how vulnerable its banking system is to the arrival of tunnel experts from abroad.

Firefighters in the sewers and the mystery of the exit

The work now moves underground, where the Firefighters team must inspect the stability of the excavated galleries. He Minister Carlos Negro He emphasized the need to see “exactly what financial institution the work was aimed at.” The risk was not only millionaire loot that they intended to steal in the robbery most resonant of the old neighborhood, but the structural danger that these clandestine excavations represent for buildings declared historical heritage.

The apathy or the lack of control on rental contracts in the Old City allowed a criminal gang to operate from mid-2025. The premises, which were listed as unoccupied, were in reality a factory of rubble and criminal plans. It is unforgivable that in an area so guarded and full of cameras, the movement of personnel and tools did not arouse suspicion until the information came from outside. He robbery of the century in Old City was thwarted by a stroke of cooperative luck, rather than by efficient preventive surveillance.

A questioned minister and a victory with a taste of little

Carlos Negro arrives at this operation at a time of extreme weakness Policy. With questions in Parliament due to its affected authority after incidents personal, this procedure appears as a necessary but insufficient oxygen tank. Although it was avoided robbery of the century in Old City, the feeling that the Foreign organized crime is “puncturing” Uruguayan security —literally and metaphorically— it is difficult to erase. Uruguay stopped being the oasis of tranquility and became a chess board for Brazilian gangs specialized in bank robberies.

The investigation will continue, but the damage to the perception of security has already been done. The Old City, with its banks and its history, was at the mercy of “moles” with foreign accents who knew perfectly where to dig. The success of the police operation does not hide the fragility of a border and internal control that allowed the robbery of the century in Old City was about to be the cover of all the newspapers in the world for the wrong reasons.

Is it really a police victory if the plan was brewing for six months in our faces and we only knew about it because we were tipped off from the outside?