A criminal and a Chilean civil aviation official were killed in an attempted attack on an armored truck carrying $32.5 million in the interior of Santiago International Airport.

The gang that carried out such a daring operation consisted of at least twelve criminals.

“A prized cargo had arrived on a Latam plane from Miami, which had to be withdrawn by the Brinks company, after which the subjects entered that place and were repelled by security officials,” said prosecutor Eduardo Baeza, in charge of the investigation. .

The criminals, aboard three vehicles, knocked down an entry gate to the air terminal in the cargo bay; it was learned that one of the criminals was wearing a uniform similar to that of airport officials. They handcuffed the security guard who was on the scene, who “managed to break free to alert the second access control,” authorities reported.

When they were discovered, a firefight broke out around 07:30 local time. Eventually, the criminals fled and set fire to two vehicles on a highway.

The president Gabriel Boric lamented the death of the official and also recalled that two robberies were prevented. “Today, these two attacks could be thwarted, but at a very high cost, at the cost of human lives,” he added.

previous robberies

This robbery recalls the robberies that took place in 2017 and 2020 at Santiago airport. In the first, an armed group managed to loot more than 18 million dollarswhile one was recorded three years later, the thieves stole 15 million from an armored truck.

In 2014, a group of thieves took more than $10 million from the airport from the Chilean capital, in an event known at the time as “the robbery of the century”.