Suspect in huge Brazil bank theft found dead

from cnn

• Body discovered bound in 75-foot-deep well
• Man's neck was broken
• Two other bodies also found in well on ranch
• Man was awaiting trial in $70 million theft

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- A man accused of being one of the robbers who tunneled in and stole more than $70 million in cash from a branch of Brazil's central bank in 2005 was found dead on a remote ranch, authorities said Sunday.

Anselmo Oliveira Magalhaes, 32, was found by police on Saturday with a broken neck and his hands and feet tied inside a 75-foot-deep well at the ranch in the interior city of Santa Izabel, said Luciana Araripi, a spokeswoman for the Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department.

Magalhaes was one of the nearly 40 people formally accused of taking part in the August 2005 heist -- which at the time was the world's largest cash theft -- at the central bank branch in Fortaleza, 1,500 miles northeast of Sao Paulo.

The bodies of two other men were also found in the well, but it wasn't immediately clear whether they had any connection with the bank heist, authorities said.

Two women who were at the ranch were detained for interrogation.

An anonymous tip led police to the ranch, authorities said. Magalhaes' relatives had reported him missing since Thursday.

Magalhaes was arrested shortly after the 2005 bank heist and police said he confessed to being one of the men who helped build the tunnel that led to the central bank branch. He was freed pending trial.

Last year, several people linked to the heist were abducted, including the sister-in-law of a suspect. The man accused of laundering money from the heist, the wife of a bank security guard and the alleged mastermind of the crime also were kidnapped and released.

Authorities said most of the people formally accused in the theft belonged to the First Capital Command gang, or PCC, one of Brazil's most notorious organized crime groups.

Cash from the Fortaleza heist was recovered throughout the country last year, and the total amount recovered so far exceeds $8 million.

The heist was the biggest in history until thieves stole more than $90 million from a security warehouse in London last year.

In 1987, $65 million was stolen from the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in London, once recognized by experts as the biggest theft.