Brazil: at least 25 dead after confrontation between police and bank robbers

At least 25 suspected suspects were killed after a confrontation with police officers during an operation against bank robberies in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais. BrazilPolice sources reported this Sunday.

According to the Highway Police of the state of Minas Gerais, intense shootings took place at dawn this Sunday, when the agents broke into two farms located in the city of Varginha during an action against the so-called “new bandit”, As the violent robberies that terrorize the interior of the country are known.

In the first confrontation, 18 people suspected of planning robberies were shot and killed, while another 7 lost their lives during the action on the second property of the city, located about 580 kilometers from the regional capital Belo Horizonte.

“The bandits were heavily armed,” the police said in a statement, adding that the agents also seized at least 10 rifles, other weapons, bulletproof vests, hand grenades, stolen cars and explosives in the operation.

According to the authorities, it was a joint action between the Highway Police and the Militarized Police, which resulted in “an apprehension of heavy weapons.”

Likewise, the preliminary versions of the investigators indicate that the group had met at the farms to plan the robbery of several banks in the city, which would take place early Monday morning.

“This is probably the largest ‘novo cangaço’ operation in the country. Many offenders would rob banks and were surprised by our intelligence service integrated with the Federal Highway Police “, Captain Layla Brunnela told the Globo television network.

This type of cinematographic robberies are increasingly common in small and medium-sized towns in Brazil, where the police force is reduced, and they have been baptized as “new bandit”In a reference to the banditry movement that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the last century came to control territories in the impoverished states of the northeast of the country.

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