The robbers unarmed the guards and locked them, then they took the shipment—all in a span of six minutes. According to the federal police, no one was injured in the attack
Armed men in Brazil stole USD 5 million in cash from a cargo aeroplane that made a freight stop at an airport about 100 km from the city of Sao Paulo on Sunday. The robbers used a vehicle identical to the one used by airport security agency to avoid attention.
The Brazilian media reported that the money was loaded on a Lufthansa Airlines plane at the Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo and made a freight stop at the Viracopos Airport. The Zurich-bound plane’s next destination was Frankfurt in Germany.
As soon as the plane landed at Viracopos, the burglars entered the airport’s cargo terminal through a side entrance. The robbers unarmed the guards and locked them, then they took the shipment—all in a span of six minutes. According to the federal police, no one was injured in the attack.
An investigation into the incident is underway. The police said that robbery happened in the international area of the airport and several witnesses are giving testimony.
Lufthansa in a statement said that they are providing all assistance possible and did not divulge further details of the case saying, “a preliminary investigation is underway.”
Cargo theft has grown in Brazil and 2017 witnessed the largest volume of cargo theft in a single year since 2001 with 10,584 such crimes. This marks an increase of 6.6 percent in the number of incidents compared to 2016.
However, the thefts were limited to trucks and minivans. This is perhaps the first such incident in which an aeroplane has been targeted.
