Gold Diggers: The World's Biggest Bank Robbery

The well-organised gang built a tunnel that was an extraordinary feat of precision civil engineering. The team broke through a reinforced steel and concrete floor and then negotiated a route through the bank that meticulously avoided all security cameras. It was a crime that united all of Brazil, and the robbers became overnight heroes. But the robbery was perhaps too perfect and rival gangs smelled blood. It was the violence that broke out in Sao Paolo, Fortaleza and beyond that led the police closer and closer to the criminal mastermind they so fervently sought. This documentary tells the story of how the robbery was carried out and how the police moved to trap the criminals, ultimately resulting in a vicious and escalating cycle of bloodshed and murder across Brazil.

Directed by James Erskine