Armed gang carrying masks of Hollywood stars rob financial institution then flee by means of sewers
The criminals, who wore masks of actors including Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, had spent weeks digging a 40ft tunnel before carrying out the Hatton Garden-style heist in Naples, Italy
The scene in Naples(Image: Paolo Manzo/NurPhoto/Shutterstock)
Police are hunting an armed gang who robbed a bank and then fled through sewers. The crooks, who wore masks of actors including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, spent weeks digging a 40ft tunnel before the Hatton Garden-style heist.
They entered the bank through the main entrance and took 25 staff members and customers hostage in a small room. The gang then wrenched open around 40 deposit boxes and swiped jewellery, watches, gold and cash.
And by the time police arrived, the thieves had escaped into the sewers in Naples, Italy. Pasquale Raniero Antino, one of the hostages, said: “The robbers tried to calm us down.
“They were saying, ‘Just be calm, don’t get agitated. That way nothing is going to happen to you’.
“But they became much more tense when they heard police sirens outside. They said to us, ‘We’ll shoot you’.
“They seemed to be professionals. They knew how to handle themselves, how to calm us down but also intimidate us.
“They were acting according to a well worked-out plan.” The gang, dubbed the “mole men”, carried out the daylight robbery on the Crédit Agricole bank last week.
Three men emerged from the tunnel into the bank’s vault while three other gang members brandishing guns arrived by car to carry out the ransacking. The men keeping guard over the hostages then joined them and they scarpered down the hole.
And the cunning crooks sealed seven manhole covers in the area to stop police from chasing them underground.
Dick Ellis, a crime investigator who spent 30 years with the Metropolitan Police, warned: “This should be a wake-up call for all banks and their insurers. They should be alarmed.”
He added: “If banks haven’t paid attention to their subterranean alarm systems, then they need to. They need to think where their bank is in relation to sewers.
“They should be asking whether there is a metro network nearby and if so, how close it is to the bank.”
Experts say it is similar to the 2015 heist at Hatton Garden in London, when robbers drilled into an underground safe deposit building and nicked £14m of jewellery and money.
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