(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-08-21 11:53

BRASILIA -- Brazilian police have arrested a man on charges of overseeing the construction of a secret tunnel to rob the state bank, the Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department said Monday.

The man was identified as Marcos Rogerio Machado de Morais, a 33-year-old engineer by profession, who was held responsible for the robbery of US$70 million, one of the biggest bank heists in the world.

With the help of Morais, thieves used shovels, pickaxes, saws and drills to dig an 80-meter tunnel stretching from a house to the vault of a Brazilian central bank branch in the northern city of Fortaleza.

Morais was captured Friday in Sao Paulo. The bank robbery has led to the arrest of more than 10 suspects, although less than US$10 million of the stolen money has been recovered.