Brazilian police cracked a Bitcoin heist and arrested eight suspects.

On December 19, according to CriptoNoticias, police in São Paulo, Brazil, successfully arrested eight suspects in a large-scale operation codenamed "Cryptonita," with one person still at large. The victim revealed his Bitcoin investment to a worker during office renovations and was subsequently robbed by an armed gang in November 2024. The gang forced the victim to transfer approximately $54,000 worth of Bitcoin within about an hour and stole a truck, mobile phones, and laptops worth $36,200. Police traced on-chain transaction records and discovered that the suspects created shell companies to launder money; most of the suspects had prior criminal records and connections to the construction industry.