Brazen Peruvian airport heist is ‘robbery of a century’

Nestled high in the Andes mountains, Peru is home to a breathtaking section of the Amazon Rainforest, the ancient Incan city of Machu Picchu and dazzling vistas that draw an estimated 4 million tourists per year. And on Friday it became the site of one of the continent's most daring high-stakes robberies.

Like something out of a Steve McQueen film, robbers stormed three Prosegur armoured trucks at the Inca Manco Capacairport in Juliaca and made off with gold and cash in what Peruvian officials are calling the ‘robbery of a century.’

At just a little past 11 o’clock in the evening local time, the LAN Airlines flight from Lima was beginning to off-load its luggage. A short distance away, Avianca’s flight from Juliaca to Lima was doing its final pre-flight check before taking off, when two white vans, carrying 10-12 attackers, crashed through the security fence that surrounded the runway. Taking everyone by surprise they sped directly to boarding area # 2, adjacent to the runway and straight toward the gold.

Equipped with guns, the assailants jumped out of their vehicles and launched tear gas at the unarmed security personnel­–airport regulations forbid the presence of firearms on the tarmac. Using the confusion caused by the spreading clouds of tear gas, they fired off multiple rounds into the air and scrambled closer to the armoured vehicles. In a matter of minutes the audacious crooks emptied the trucks of their contents: three containers which held $1.4 million in soles, $1 million in US dollars and 120 kilograms of gold, worth $4.8 million. Back in their own vehicles, they sped to the end of the airfield where they set fire to their vans, scaled a one-metre high barrier wall and made their getaway in a waiting car.

Almost at once, 400 police officers began their search for the perpetrators in the Bolivia-Peru border region of Puno. Within ten hours, police had apprehended six of the suspects, 30 kilograms of the gold and $300,000 of the cash.

Among those arrested in the house in the nearby town of Canchi Grande, was Miguel Pérez Tirado, known by the street-name Narigón, and believed to be the brains behind the affair. Tirado, 43, is no stranger to local authorities, having an extensive criminal record including time at Centro De Reclusión Maranguita, the controversial juvenile detention facility well-know for its riots , shootings, escapes, arson , abuse, over population and overall poor conditions.

Police are still actively working to locate as many as six additional suspects along with the remaining still unaccounted for $2 million in cash and $3.6 million in gold