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.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese