Police said today they recovered nearly all of the $8 million that disappeared last month from a plane carrying the money from the United States to Argentina. ``We're counting the money, and very little is missing,'' said Nilo Augusto Batista, the police official in charge of investigating the theft. One person was arrested before dawn in connection with the disappearance, and that arrest led to several others, Batista said. The official said all in custody were Brazilians and that their names would be released later. The money was part of a $52 million shipment from the Federal Reserve Board in New York to the Central Bank of Argentina that was stolen sometime between Feb. 4 and 5, said Marven Moss, a spokesman for Brink's Inc., based in Darien, Conn. The money was shipped through Brink's on a routine flight aboard a commercial airliner in 13 bags and was made up of new, consecutively numbered $100 bills, Moss said. The theft was discovered when the airliner arrived in Buenos Aires and authorities found only 11 bags. The two missing bags contained $8 million, Moss said. ``Apparently what happened is that some people who were working at the airport on a temporary basis took the bags and didn't realize what they took. They thought it was (music) cassettes. Then, they get home and realize they have $8 million,'' Moss said. Batista said the first break in the case came from the Narcotics Department of the Rio de Janeiro state police. ``Even though this case was, technically, not in the drug area, our people followed the tip, and the result was nearly total success,'' Batista said. He said the missing dollars were traced to several Brazilian states, where the thieves tried to exchange them, apparently for other American dollars or for foreign currency. ``They didn't get a chance to spend much,'' the official said. But Moss said Brazilian drug agents recovered virtually all the cash today during a drug but. Those who stole the money apparently used some of the cash to buy drugs, he said. The spokesman didn't have any more details on the arrest, nor the exact amount of cash recovered. The recovered money belongs to Brink's, since its insurance repaid the Federal Reserve Board for the theft, Moss said. The $8 million heist was the largest in Brink's history, Moss said.
