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Detectives investigating the break-in at the BBVA branch on Avenida de Andalucía in Malaga city on Friday 7 March have been perplexed by the complex operation that the criminals used to gain access to a system that only five Spanish banks have.
The police already consider it an "unprecedented" robbery for Spain due to its level of sophistication. One million euros were recovered by the police, during the foot chase that took place once the alarms went off around 9pm and the security forces were mobilised. They caught one of the suspects, who was carrying a bag, but the total sum of the stolen money is yet to be known, as the police only arrived during the second stage of the robbery that the criminals carried out.
The robbery's partial success is due to the highly skilled operation, with which they gained access to a robotised bunker vault, which clients can enter at any time of the day. The criminals managed to do that without triggering the security system.
To do that, they had to pass through up to four card readers and go through different waiting rooms until they reached a private area. Only when the doors of this last room are closed and the PIN is correctly entered does the robot's articulated arm extract the respective safe deposit box. The box opens with a key that only the client has. This whole process should, in theory, make the mechanism safe.
When the alarms of the bank went off at 9pm, the robbery had already been under way for a while. Video surveillance cameras have revealed that the thieves spent more than an hour inside the vault. They even left with part of the money and later returned to finish the robbery.
When the first police patrol arrived, the two robbers were leaving the branch. One of them escaped, but the other one, 36 and of Moldovan origin, was arrested on the spot. It was in his backpack that the police found one million euros and some of the tools used in the robbery, which they are now trying to figure out. It is believed that the detainee only came to Spain to carry out the robbery.
The plan executed by the criminals demonstrates a high level of preparation and computer knowledge. To enter the branch and pass through the readers in each room, they had to clone the cards of actual clients. It has not been revealed how they were able to copy and duplicate them, but 'skimming' is a classic method, which BBVA warns about on its website.
The unknown that the investigation has not yet revealed is how they managed to obtain the PIN code for the last step of the process, which also requires the unique key to open each safe deposit box.
Two hypotheses are being tested by the investigation, although there is no evidence of either at the moment. The first is that the criminals managed to hack the security system of the boxes and extract information. The second is that they had installed micro-spy cameras in order to obtain the PIN codes of the users.
Once a hypothesis is verified, it will be possible to understand why they selected 16 from the more than 100 boxes that the bank has, considering that the contents of each box are secret even for the bank.
The last mystery is how they opened the safety deposit boxes without violating them. In order for the system to work correctly and not set off the alarms, the robot must return each box to the 'bunker' without detecting any anomaly, such as damage to the lock cylinder.
This Spanish heist brings to memory the Bank Río heist in Buenos Aires, which took place on 13 January 2006, when two robbers broke into a bank and took 23 hostages. One of the robbers was wearing an apron and a wig, while the second one has come to be known as 'the man in the grey suit'. He was the one who negotiated with the police and who agreed to give himself up if they would first send them some pizzas.
When the officers entered, the criminals were no longer there, having escaped with around 19 million dollars through an underground tunnel that they had been digging for months. The pair left a note that read: "In a neighbourhood of rich people, without weapons or grudges, it's only money and no love."
The Bank Río heist has since inspired books and the film The Heist of the Century (2020).
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