Overview
- Police executed Operación Blindaje on February 3–4 in Ciudad Vieja, detaining ten suspects of Uruguayan, Brazilian and Paraguayan nationality, with at least one person still sought.
- The tunnel began inside a rented commercial premises at Colón and 25 de Mayo and connected to the city’s sewer system through an extremely narrow passage navigable only crawling.
- Specialized teams, including firefighters and police forensic units, used a robot to inspect and document the tunnel as evidence processing and mapping continue.
- Authorities seized excavation tools, construction materials, vehicles, surveillance equipment and cash during coordinated raids in Montevideo and El Pinar.
- The inquiry followed alerts from foreign security partners in December and now includes a probe into possible links with a 2024 tunnel attempt targeting Banco Macro in Argentina.