Five bandits breached airport security and stole $5MN in cash being loaded onto a Lufthansa Cargo plane.
The MD-11 aircraft, slated to fly from Sao Paulo to Frankfurt via Dakar, Senegal, was being prepared for loading when the heist took place.
At around 10pm, the five men breached a security barrier Campinas Viracopos Airport and drove up to the MD-11, stealing the money as the cargo was being prepared to load onto the aircraft. Per CH-Aviation, the heist took mere moments:
The gang has reportedly entered the airport premises in a pick-up truck mimicking the security company’s vehicles. The robbery, during which the security agents were reportedly threatened with weapons, took only about six minutes.
Police have launched an investigation, but have no leads yet. It is not clear what currency the cash was in.
CONCLUSION
Sounds like an inside job to me. I trust Lufthansa carries excellent insurance.
My question, though, is what kind of security was present in the first place? We see armed men driving armored cars all the time in U.S. cities to transport money between banks. What sort of security was in place to guard this cash…was it just sitting in a Rimowa Topas suitcase?
More details here.
image: Milad A380 / Wikimedia Commons
Sounds like a Jimmy Conway job
For sure an inside job. But if not in Brazil, the same would have surely happened in Senegal!
I agree that this would seem like a strange way to move cash. Five million in $100 bills would be about one larger carry-on.