Monday, June 26, 2006

Cashed-up Brits arrested in Morocco

Four Britons arrested here on Sunday were wanted in connection with the February theft of £53m from a cash depot, considered Britain's biggest bank robbery to date.

The suspects were captured inside the "Mega Mall" shopping centre in the posh Souissi district of the Moroccan capital in an operation involving about 30 police officers, a police source said.

They are suspected of involvement in the hold-up of the Securitas cash depot in the English city of Kent in February this year. The robbery was the world's largest known cash theft in peacetime, eclipsed only by the looting of Iraq's central bank during the US-led invasion in April 2003. During the robbery in Kent, the gang kidnapped depot manager Colin Dixon, 51, and held his wife Lynn, 45, and son Craig, then aged eight, hostage.

Police have so far recovered £19.7m of the stolen money. Early on in the investigation, police sources said that some of the stolen millions may have been smuggled abroad. Among those so far charged with the robbery are two people who worked for Securitas.

UPDATE:

A man arrested in Morocco in connection with Britain's biggest cash robbery was named today as Lee Murray, a martial arts expert who has competed as a "cage fighter".

Mr Murray, 26, of Sidcup, south London, was arrested yesterday afternoon in connection with February's £53m Securitas raid in Kent. He is known as Lee "Lightning" Murray in the world of cage fighting - a mixture of kick boxing, karate and other martial arts - and has appeared on television.

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