Three people have been arrested in Switzerland in connection with a daring 2018 heist that saw thieves make off with up to CHF15 million ($14.9 million). A total of 13 people have also been interrogated in France in connection with the case.
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The three suspects in Switzerland are Swiss men aged 29, 30 and 37, police in canton Vaud said on Friday. They were arrested on Swiss territory and have been placed in provisional detention.
This comes more than a year after the heist, which unfolded like something from an action film. On the morning of February 8, 2018, a young Frenchwoman was kidnapped from her Lyon apartment by men pretending to be plumbers. After being tied up, she was forced to phone her father – a driver for the SOS Surveillance money transport company in Switzerland – and relay to him the thieves’ demands.
The father duly drove the van, which was carrying CHF10 million-CHF15 million, to a car park in canton Vaud in southwestern Switzerland and handed over its contents to three armed men.
The young woman was then released and was found by the side of a road about 20 kilometres from Lyon. Along with her father and his co-driver, she was questioned for several days by police. All three were released.
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