Band Of Thieves Stormed A Bank And Took Hostages, But It Was All A Diversion For A Much Bigger Heist
After two years of meticulous planning, a team of skilled thieves made off with more than $20 million but it would be a mistake in one of the thieves' personal lives that would be their undoing.
How Argentina’s Robbers Almost Pulled Off The Greatest Bank Heist Banco Rio Acassuso
In January 2006, a group of bold thieves in Buenos Aires nearly executed one of the greatest bank heists in history. With meticulous planning, fake hostages, and an elaborate escape plan through the city’s sewers, they stole millions—but in the end, a personal mistake unraveled it all.

A Bold Plan Born Out of Crisis
On a bright January day in 2006, the people of Buenos Aires were treated to what appeared to be a classic bank robbery drama. A group of masked men stormed into the Banco Río in Acassuso, a quiet suburb of the Argentine capital, taking hostages and drawing the full attention of the police, the media, and the public. As the tension escalated, everyone waited with bated breath for the inevitable standoff and eventual capture of the criminals. What no one knew, however, was that the actual heist was happening beneath their feet.

The daring robbery was part of a meticulously crafted two-year plan. And while the spectacle unfolded on the surface, the real genius of the operation lay underground, where millions of dollars in cash and valuables were being quietly looted from the bank’s vault. It was a heist that, had it succeeded in total, could have gone down as one of the greatest in history. But despite the elaborate scheme, the criminals soon discovered that not every detail had gone according to plan.

The plot for the Buenos Aires bank heist was born out of a desire not just for money but for a grand spectacle that would humiliate the banking system. The mastermind behind the heist, Fernando Araujo, was no ordinary criminal. An eccentric man with a passion for crime movies, Araujo had long been fascinated by the idea of pulling off a massive bank robbery. He was known for smoking marijuana while watching heist films, using them as inspiration for the real-life crime he was planning.

Araujo envisioned a robbery that would not only net him and his team millions of dollars but also embarrass the financial institutions that had already lost the trust of the Argentine public. In the early 2000s, Argentina had been plunged into economic chaos, with the value of the local currency plummeting and people losing their savings overnight. However, the contents of safe deposit boxes remained untouched by the financial crisis, making them an attractive target for Araujo and his team.

свернуть