Multi-million gold heist from Curacao boat

Multi-million gold heist from Curacao boat

hosted.ap.org

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (AP) -- Masked men in jackets emblazoned with the word "police" boarded a fishing boat Friday in Curacao and stole 70 gold bars worth an estimated $11.5 million, officials on the southern Caribbean island said.


The boat's captain was struck in the head in the early-morning assault before the thieves made off with the gold in three cars, police spokesman Reggie Huggins said. Authorities believe there were at least six men involved in the heist. No suspects were in custody.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Ocean's 11, anyone?=)


No but seriously the first thing that came to mind when I read this story was; wow!, a real life gold heist!, a well planned getaway with
216 kilograms (476 pounds) of gold bars!


The owner has declined to reveal himself, which in any case isn't too surprising.


Best part of the story for me was...

"The crew said it was like a movie operation, very fast,"


The crew also said that no one was harmed, and that the men were dressed in uniforms that said " POLICE"


The perfect heist.


I enjoyed reading this story and thought ATS might too.


SS


hosted.ap.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

s&f, Spike! Good thread man. Also, Bacon.

reply to post by JamesLimelight


Thanks James, heist movies are my second favorite after sci fi, so reading this was a treat.

And Bacon to you too good sir


SS

You would think that these idiots would wait until after Dec 21 2012 wouldn't you ?

Just think, they all might be dead in 20 days and as they stole money for greed they will now go to hell.

Was it worth it ? No. They are stupid shallow minded dead-beat money loving lifeless zombies.

reply to post by Rapha


Hell.... yes....






star for the laughs

SS

Most normal fishing boats don't just chug around with a stack of gold bars on hand, something is very very odd here. I would bet money that the people who hit the boat were somehow connected to the owner of the gold, you dont just raid a random boat in stolen police gear and stumble across a stack of gold.

reply to post by Helig


Finally someone asks the question I was waiting for!

I agree, what is a Fishing boat doing with 476 pounds of gold, that isn't normal.

Who owns this gold, or rather owned this gold?



SS

Originally posted by Spike Spiegle
reply to post by Helig

 

Finally someone asks the question I was waiting for!

I agree, what is a Fishing boat doing with 476 pounds of gold, that isn't normal.

Who owns this gold, or rather owned this gold?



SS

Also, 6 men and 476 pounds of gold equals 80 pounds of gold per man, plus their weapons.

So how fast could they have moved?

Ever try to run with two bags of softner salt and a rifle?

I haven't, but I'll bet it's not easy.

Yes indeed. What is a Fishing boat doing as a gold transport?
By definition a Fishing Boat does ... Fishing.

Certainly they've been facilitated for smuggling throughout history, but, this case the old unassuming fishing boat trick wasn't all that successful.

It reminds me of some news heard awhile back about someone losing thousands of $ in real-world equivalent virtual items in the game Eve Online when they transported the stuff in a tiny little ship.

Something about this story that's bothersome is, where was the security?
If I had $11,000,000 in anything, whether it was $11M in dirty socks, peanuts, electronics, or even gold, I'd of had some armed security hanging about, and not just your regular rent-a-cop either.

Just captain and crew of regular old fishing boat hanging about?
It just doesn't sound all that plausible. It sounds doomed to fail, almost like it was begging to fail as if someone wanted this load of booty to get stole.

The thieves didn't even have to go pirate. They just drove in cars, hopped on the boat, got was was for getting, then drove off, in cars, not boats.

reply to post by Spike Spiegle


Good find Spike

Sound like to me these guys had this planned for some time. Given they made it out with the gold and no one is locked up for it. My guess this was a whole planned event for these guys.

Still good read man. S/F.

-SAP-

I wouldn't be surprised if someone was using this gold to pay for a drug shipment and the same people paying had a team waiting to intercept it once it got there.

It's pretty tough to get information on pirates in the Caribbean...no matter how you word it on Google all you get is freakin Johnny Depp.

Maybe the movies were a conspiracy to conceal a growing industry down there?

After finally figuring out that you have to search for maritime crime, nor pirates, here's some stuff I found:

This report on piracy from Virginia.edu has three chapter: one for South and Southeast Asia, one for Eas Asia, and one for Africa...

Nothing on the Caribbean..


Getting a little close to what I want with this article from miami.edu about the use of satellite surveillance to prevent maritime crime.

In mid-2004, Vexcel and CSTARS demonstrated the system to government officials, using RADARSAT-1, which is operated by Radarsat International, providing a real-time, real-world test of the system. Within minutes, a detailed picture of the nearby ocean, ranging from the Caribbean Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, near the Florida panhandle was captured and available for processing. The entire exercise — from downlink to ship detection, including verification by experienced analysts — occurred within 60 minutes.

Another article I found talks about preventing such crimes...I'm trying to find more recent examples. Maybe there aren't any, things are under wraps down there as far as piracy goes?

Giving up the search for now.

Anyone know anything about the current state of piracy in the Caribbean?

Originally posted by Helig
Most normal fishing boats don't just chug around with a stack of gold bars on hand, something is very very odd here. I would bet money that the people who hit the boat were somehow connected to the owner of the gold, you dont just raid a random boat in stolen police gear and stumble across a stack of gold.

That was my fist response.

What are gold bars doing on a fishing boat?

And who funded a well organized professional heist?

Originally posted by Rapha
...

Just think, they all might be dead in 20 days and as they stole money for greed they will now go to hell.

Was it worth it ? No. They are stupid shallow minded dead-beat money loving lifeless zombies.

Boats don't normally carry 10 million in gold with them. Boats are however part of black market trading because of a smugglers ability to use them for transport of banned/prohibited/restricted goods.

Pretty sure this has something to do with black market, or at least grey market activity (Laundering money/Tax evading in the Caribbean?) so lets not treat it as though a bunch of guys ran into a bank with guns drawn.

Probably a spat between people in the illicit trading markets.

Pirates always prefered gold.


Gotta suck tho imagine how many fishys they could have caught with that gold bait hell maybe they were fishing fer mermaids!.

The Usual Suspects

Ah, nothing like a good mystery. Some tantalizing possibilities:

- The captain was in on it. "Hit me to make it look convincing."

- The gold was actually supposed to be shipped somewhere else, and this was an "unscheduled stop".

- The "police" were, in fact, real police.

- The gold was actually painted lead.

- The party who shipped the gold decided to receive it "sans fee".

- There never was any gold in the first place, and the whole story is a hoax.

- Something else entirely.

It seems very, very unlikely the gold passed properly through customs, and that this was a legitimate shipment not associated with crime in any way.

Whatever the case may be, I wouldn't want to be the captain of the Summer Bliss, nor his life insurance company.

reply to post by Majic


All very good theories, a vital one hasn't been mentioned though...

A Ninja heist, everyone knows Ninjas only accept payment in pure gold.

The World’s largest gold bar is on display in Japan at the Toi Gold Museum . It was manufactured by the Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, and went on display at the museum in 2005. The Toi Gold Bar weighs a massive 250kg, or some 8037.686 troy ounces. At today’s current spot price of $1610.30 USD per troy ounce, the Toi Gold Bar is worth some $12.9 million dollars (USD).

SS

If this is true:

Authorities have the license plate number of one of three cars used in Friday's getaway, and they have been asking for the public's help in tracking the suspects, police spokesman Reggie Huggins told The Associated Press.

...and IF it was owned by one of them instead of being stolen (Which all good robbers should know) , then this would make them the very opposite of Ocean's 11.

We can dream tho, right?

Peace

reply to post by jude11


Aye, perhaps it is only a dream...

Not a perfect getaway? or a setup?


SS