Friday, February 24, 2006
Police suspect organized crime behind huge cash robbery PDF | Print | E-mail

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TARIQ PANJA - The Associated Press
TONBRIDGE, England -- One of Britain's biggest and most audacious robberies was executed with military-style precision: One gang abducted the cash depot manager's family while another tied up guards and made off with up to $87 million.

Police said they arrested a 29-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman Thursday in the robbery, which bore striking similarities to a 2004 heist in Northern Ireland and to the new movie "Firewall."

Authorities blamed criminal gangs -- not terrorists -- for the heist, and said the hunt continued for other robbers.

"This is organized crime at its top level. This was planned and executed with military precision," Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard said of Wednesday's pre-dawn raid in the market town of Tonbridge, 30 miles southeast of London. No one was injured in the robbery.

The two suspects were arrested at two addresses in southeast London; police and forensic teams searched both locations.

"All I can say is that the arrests are significant," Leppard said on the steps of the Kent police headquarters. He said police have received more than 400 calls from people offering tips, but would not provide any more details on the investigation.

The heist at Securitas Cash Management Ltd. began when some of the thieves, dressed as police officers, stopped the firm's manager about 20 miles from the cash depot as he drove home Tuesday night. The manager got into their car, which he believed to be a police vehicle, and was handcuffed, police said.

At the same time, a second team of masked thieves went to the manager's house in the town of Herne Bay and persuaded his wife and his 8-year-old son to go with them by saying the man had had an accident. The manager allegedly was told to cooperate or his family would be hurt.

At around 1 a.m. Wednesday, several hours after the manager was seized, the group holding him went to the cash depot. They tied up the manager and 14 other employees and then took about an hour to load the cash into a truck, police said. About an hour after they left, the staff managed to call police.

The Tonbridge raid bore similarities to the 2004 Northern Bank robbery that netted thieves $46.1 million.

In both cases, thieves targeted a bank's cash distribution center -- and used hostages to breach security.

During both heists, police say, the raiders disguised themselves as police to gain the confidence of their victims.

"I would doubt very much whoever did it had a terror link," Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, said of Wednesday's robbery. "Normally, they don't go for high-risk ventures with massive amounts of law enforcement focus."

Three men, including a bank employee, have been arrested and charged in the 2004 robbery. International authorities have blamed the outlawed Irish Republican Army, but British police suspect an organized crime gang.

Police offered a $3.5 million reward for information leading to the recovery of the Tonbridge cash -- a stack that could weigh 900 pounds.

Authorities issued an all-ports alert but said they were trying to come up with descriptions of the robbers. Some wore balaclavas and goggles.

Video footage was released of a white van the robbers used to carry the cash. Several other vehicles used in the robbery were still missing.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A7.

More RL news. You've got the starts of Tanamous, and a NY Mob. Good times, good times

Four indicted in stolen human tissue case

NEW YORK -- The owner of a biomedical supply house was charged along with three other men Thursday with secretly carving up corpses and selling the parts for use in transplants across the country.

The case was "like something out of a cheap horror movie," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.

Prosecutors said the defendants obtained the bodies from funeral parlors in three states and forged death certificates and organ donor consent forms to make it look as if the bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed. The defendants made millions of dollars from the scheme, prosecutors said.

Reputed crime boss, 31 others are charged

NEW YORK -- The reputed acting boss of the city's most powerful Mafia family and 31 other alleged mob figures were charged Thursday with a host of underworld crimes, including a hit that prosecutors say was ordered by the don from behind bars.

The charges deliver "an absolute body blow" to the Genovese family, said FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon. He said 30 people had been arrested.

The indictment accuses the defendants of engaging in money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion, gun running and murder for more than a decade.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A4.

The two suspects were arrested at two addresses in southeast London; police and forensic teams searched both locations.

Looks like they didn't do so good after all.

"Getting away with it" is two thirds of the run.

there's no mention of who the two suspects were, or what relation they had to the crime. remember Jon Voight's character in Heat? they could have arrested guys like him--involved, but not directly, and probably able to escape any serious charges with a slick enough lawyer and enough planning ahead. or, more likely, a guy like the one Pacino interviewed--"Don't waste my MUTHAFUCKIN' TIME!" a two-bit nobody who happens to know the right people and hear the right things, avoiding serious jail time by snitching. after a heist like this, they're going to be putting a lot of pressure on guys like that.

Yeah the brutal reality is there is no honor among thieves.

Sure at first they'll never "rat a brother out".

But I used to work in a jail and I'm here to tell you: given enough time an inmate will rat out their own mother for a Snickers bar or a Coke.

I would be greatly disappointed if this didn't end up like what happened to Jimmy's crew post-Lufthansa in Goodfellas.

So, when do they start finding bodies in freezer trucks?

What criminals need, clearly, is a shadowrunner classical samurai with Edged Weapons 6 (12).

I prefer taking it to be compacted in Jersey.