(Santiago de Chile) Two people were killed on Wednesday at Santiago International Airport during the aborted robbery of an armored van which was to recover 32.5 million US dollars from Miami, Chilean authorities announced.
“Valuable cargo, which had just arrived on a (company) Latam plane from Miami, was to be handled by the Brinks company when the thieves burst in before being repelled by the security agents,” said prosecutor Eduardo Baeza, in charge of the investigation.
An official from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) and one of the criminals were killed in the shooting that broke out.
The thieves, a dozen according to authorities, arrived at the terminal at 7:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. Eastern time) in three vehicles. They broke through a gate before reaching the area where an armored truck was to collect the funds from the United States. Surprised by the security agents, the criminals fled after setting fire to two of the vehicles with which they had arrived.
Thefts have already been committed at the Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in the Chilean capital in recent years.
In 2017, an armed group seized more than $18 million, while three years later, in 2020, thieves stole $15 million from an armored truck.