Police said on Monday that they foiled what could have been one of the biggest robberies in British history, when they arrested seven men attempting to snatch nearly £80 million (US$142 million) in gold and cash from a warehouse just outside London's Heathrow airport.
"The gold was [worth] 40 million," a senior London police spokesman said. "We believe the figure is in the region of 30 to 40 million in cash, so between 70 and 80 million in total."
The police said their officers were lying in wait when the would-be robbers rammed their way into the Swissport cargo warehouse in a van and threatened staff with "at least one firearm and other weapons including knives and cudgels."
"In preventing this attack, we have foiled what would have been one of the biggest robberies ever committed in the United Kingdom," deputy police superintendent Barry Phillips told the media.
"We believe that these men were part of an organized criminal enterprise," he said, adding that the attempted robbery had required a lot of planning and preparation.
One of eight robbers escaped.
Had it succeeded, the heist would have dwarfed the 1983 Brinks Mat robbery in which £26 million in gold was stolen from a warehouse at Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport.
It also would have rivaled the famous Great Train Robbery of 1963, in which £2.3 million was lifted from a mail train -- a sum that would be worth about £40 million today.
"History will show that this is just as significant an attempted robbery in the 21st century as the Great Train Robbery and Brinks Mat," said Phillips, who branded the suspects, all in their early 30s, as "career criminals."
"They knew where the gold bullion was located inside the premises and went straight for it," he said. "As the vehicle reversed through the shutters, that was the signal for the armed police to ... effect the arrests."
Around 100 police officers took part in the operation near Heathrow's passenger Terminal Four and the main airport cargo terminals.
No gunfire was exchanged, though police used special rounds to shoot out the tires of the van. The only man to escape got away by hijacking a nearby van.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS