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ROBBERY

Sixteen charged for brazen postal heist

Prosecutors on Friday indicted 16 people in Gothenburg District Court for their role in the audacious robbery of a postal depot near the city’s central train station in January 2008.

Sixteen charged for brazen postal heist

According to the indictment, the assailants made off with roughly 500,000 kronor ($64,000).

Those charged in the heist are between the ages of 22 and 33 and reside in the Stockholm area.

The robbery was carried out following a number of planning meetings held in Stockholm in the latter half of 2007 and led by one of the accused, a 33-year-old man.

The robbers struck at around 2am on January 22nd, and carried out a number of measures to keep police distracted as the thieves made their getaway.

Several armed men stormed into the post terminal and threatened the staff. At the same time, several cars were set on fire, effectively blocking Kruthusgatan, the only road to and from the terminal.

Police also found several suspicious packages throughout central Gothenburg which they thought might be bombs.

Large parts of the city were cordoned off, and around 120 people were evacuated from their apartments.

Several of those charged for the crime are also suspected for having planned and carried out other attacks against Gothenburg-area police in November 2007, two months prior to the robbery.

Among the attacks were a November 12th incident in which shots were fired at the entry of a police station in the suburb of Partille, as well as the shooting of several police helicopters at an airstrip in Säve in Gothenburg’s Hisingen district the following day.

The attacks were meant to serve as diversions ahead of the post depot attack, which according to the thieves’ plans, was to be carried out in the early afternoon of November 13th.

However, something in the morning that day the group decided to change their plans, according to the indictment.

ROBBERY

Axe-wielding robbers steal €400k of jewels from luxury Paris hotel

French police are searching for a team of robbers who stole thousands of euros' worth of jewels and luxury clothing in a nighttime raid at a plush hotel in Paris.

Axe-wielding robbers steal €400k of jewels from luxury Paris hotel
Thieves targeted the Peninsula Hotel in Paris. Photo: AFP

Two men wearing balaclavas and gloves entered the Peninsula hotel, just a stone's throw from the Arc de Triomphe, shortly after midnight and held employees at gunpoint, police sources said.

One of the attackers then used an axe to break into four display cases, making off with items worth a total of €350,000 to €400,000.

An accomplice then drove them away in a car that was found burning shortly afterwards in the suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of the capital.

No shots were fired and no one was injured in the robbery, the sources said.

France's organised crime brigade has taken over the inquiry.

Luxury Paris hotels have been the target of several robberies in recent years, as have jewellery stores and wealthy tourists visiting the city.

In January 2018, three men were charged over an audacious yet unsuccessful jewellery heist at the Ritz, after they were thwarted by locked doors as they tried to flee.

Last September, three Russian tourists were robbed of thousands of dollars' worth of jewelry and luxury clothing shortly after landing at a Paris airport reserved for private jets.

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