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Author Topic: £40m Heathrow gold robbery foiled
Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster

Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99


 - posted 05-17-2004 10:31 AM      Profile for Mark Gulbrandsen   Email Mark Gulbrandsen   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
One has to wonder if they had considered melting the gold down and casting it into little Eiffel Towers..... [Big Grin]

Mark

LONDON, England (CNN) -- London police have foiled an attempted robbery of £40 million ($70 million) in gold bullion at Heathrow Airport.

Six men were arrested in the Monday morning raid by armed officers from the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad, Scotland Yard said. Two suspects escaped in a hijacked van, and one was arrested later.

"We have foiled what would have been one of the biggest robberies ever committed in the UK," said Detective Superintendent Barry Phillips of the Flying Squad.

"We believe that these men were part of an organized criminal enterprise. It is clear that a lot of planning and preparation went into the attack, but the Met's Flying Squad was one step ahead of the team for some time."

Armed officers were lying in wait when a white van rammed through the shutters of Swiss Port Cargo warehouse on the outer perimeter of Heathrow, police said.

A gang of men got out of the van and threatened warehouse staff with at least one firearm and other weapons, including knives, Scotland Yard said.

The gang tried to steal the gold bullion at the warehouse and force their way into a secure area containing a large quantity of bank notes, police said.

The officers disabled the van and arrested six suspects, aged in their early to late 30s, but two other suspects hijacked a van and forced the driver to take them out of the area.

The van was recovered shortly afterwards and the driver was not injured.

Police said later that a seventh man had been arrested and that an eighth suspect was still being sought.

The best known successful robbery at Heathrow was the Brinks Mat robbery in 1983, in which a six-man gang stole gold valued then at £26 million.

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000


 - posted 05-17-2004 01:25 PM      Profile for Leo Enticknap   Author's Homepage   Email Leo Enticknap   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
quote: Mark Gulbrandsen
One has to wonder if they had considered melting the gold down and casting it into little Eiffel Towers.....
That might boost the exchange rate of the euro a little bit! [Big Grin]

They had a spokesman from the Flying Squad (the London police force's organised crime unit) preening himself on the radio during the drive home this evening. Listening to the guy, you'd think he was Sherlock Holmes! Still, trying to gippo £80 million puts Mr. Pink et al. in the shade...

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