1,500 Pounds of Gold Gone in Three Minutes During Brazil Heist By Fabiola Moura and David Biller July 26, 2019, 12:40 PM EDT Gold bars worth $30 million were taken from Sao Paulo airport Theft involved armed men disguised as federal police agents Police inspect the vehicles that were left by suspects involved in heist carried out at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos international airport, on July 25, 2019. Photographer: Paulo Lopes/Futura Press via AP It took less than three minutes for eight armed men to make off with $30 million worth of gold bars from Sao Paulo’s international airport -- possibly the second-largest heist in Brazil’s history. Criminals disguised as federal police officers drove to the Guarulhos airport on Thursday afternoon in an SUV and flatbed truck, both fashioned to look official, according to the airport’s press office. Security camera footage shows them wearing balaclavas and giving orders to cargo terminal employees, one of whom used a forklift to load the precious cargo onto the truck’s bed. Vídeo gravado por câmera de segurança mostra ação de grupo que usou viatura clonada da PF para roubar uma tonelada de ouro no Aeroporto de Guarulhos pic.twitter.com/DdgYU6VBnE — Jovem Pan News (@JovemPanNews) July 25, 2019 The gold was bound for Zurich and New York, the airport’s press office said in an email, without disclosing its provenance. Sao Paulo’s civil police, which is in charge of the investigation, said the men took 720 kilograms (1,587 pounds) in bars valued at 110 million reais ($30 million). The crime was perpetrated by “a well-organized gang,” police chief João Carlos Miguel Hueb told reporters on Friday. “This certainly wasn’t their first robbery.” largest robbery in the country’s history in 2005, thieves tunneled into the central bank’s regional unit in Fortaleza to take the equivalent of $67 million in local currency. A similar plot in 2017 was foiled just before tunnelers reached Banco do Brasil’s vault. Criminals routinely steal or blow up ATMs, hijack cargo trucks and armored vehicles, and once made off with millions of dollars worth of merchandise from a Samsung factory. Read More: Samsung Workers Held Hostage as Bandits Make Brazil Factory Haul Relatives Kidnapped The night before this week’s heist, criminals kidnapped relatives of an employee at Brink’s Co., the security and transportation company in charge of the gold cargo. He was forced to provide detailed information that helped in the attack, police said. Brink’s didn’t immediately return Bloomberg’s request for comment. The gold thieves ditched the fake police cars and swapped them twice for getaway vehicles. Police are now interviewing airport workers as part of the investigation. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...old-gone-in-three-minutes-during-brazil-heist
Was it Venezuelan gold? Is it a scam to avoid US sanctions? Will it end up in President Maduro's daughter's safety box somewhere in Europe? She has an estimated net worth of 4.6 B stolen from the people of Venezuela.
Feds charge mobster in $6 million Lufthansa heist at Kennedy Airport that was portrayed in 'Goodfellas' By Larry McShane and John Marzulli NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | Jan 23, 2014 | 11:31 PM The FBI escorts Vincent Asaro (center), considered a ruling member of the Bonanno crime family, Thursday. He was arrested in connection to the 1978 heist at Kennedy Airport. He also faces a murder charge. (Joe Marino/New York Daily News) The infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist became a case so cold that investigators once needed two days to thaw the frozen body of a murdered suspect. Thirty-five years later, with the help of four informants, the feds finally busted the last "Goodfella" standing in the $6 million robbery immortalized in the Martin Scorsese mob movie. Old-school gangster Vincent Asaro, 78, was among five Bonanno family members rounded up Thursday morning in an FBI organized crime sweep. Robbery mastermind James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke (center) is taken unto custody after a raid by the FBI. (Tom Monaster/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) The lifelong gangster allegedly conspired with mob associates Jimmy (The Gent) Burke and Henry Hill in the stunning 64-minute robbery at Kennedy Airport. Robert De Niro played Burke – named "Jimmy Conway" in the film — the Lufthansa mastermind, and Ray Liotta portrayed Hill in the Scorsese-directed 1990 "Goodfellas." James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke surveys damage done by FBI. (Nick Sorrentino/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS) Among those ratting out the mob quintet was a cousin of Asaro — along with one-time Bonanno boss Joseph (Big Joey) Massino, authorities said. The suspects face various charges of racketeering, extortion, robbery and solicitation to murder. "These 'Goodfellas' thought they had a license to steal, a license to kill and a license to do whatever they wanted," said FBI Assistant Director George Venizelos. Police Officer Joseph Rossi guards stolen van used by gunmen to haul $5.8 million in loot from JFK International Airport. Rossi read an an account of caper and recalled issuing ticket for van that met description. He notified his station and van was found in Canarsie last night. (New York Daily News) Burke and Asaro were also implicated by the cousin in a brutal 1969 murder in which a suspected informant was killed with a dog chain and buried in a Queens basement. The Asaro cousin — a participant in the legendary Dec. 11, 1978, heist — wore a wire after cutting a deal with the feds to go undercover at least three years ago. FBI agents apprehended 78-year-old Vincent Asaro in connection with a $6 million cash and jewelry theft in 1978. In addition to identifying Asaro's involvement in the airport robbery, a wiretapped conversation revealed most of the Lufthansa plotters never collected their fair shares of the record-setting swag from Burke. "We never got the right money, what we was supposed to get, we got f---ed all around," Asaro complained to his cousin in February 2011. "Got f---ed all around. That f---ing Jimmy (Burke) kept everything." Jerome Asaro is walked out of Federal Plaza in Manhattan on Thursday. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News) Each of the conspirators was supposed to collect $750,000, but most were slain or stiffed, court papers indicated. Only a Lufthansa cargo agent was ever convicted of the crime. In the book "Wiseguy," Hill says as many as 10 of the Lufthansa crew were killed — many gruesomely, most on the greedy Burke's command. Thomas DeFiore (center) was also one of five men charged in Thursday's wide-ranging indictment. (Jefferson Siegel/New York Daily News) "The way Jimmy saw it ... whoever wanted his share of the Lufthansa money was taking the dough out of Jimmy's pocket," Hill said. Among those killed: Richard Eaton, whose body was found inside a refrigeration truck in Brooklyn. It took two days to defrost him for an autopsy. John Rigano (left) was charged with four others Thursday in a wide-ranging indictment that covered a number of crimes and offenders. (Joe Marino/ New York Daily News) Court papers showed that Massino, the future head of the Bonannos, received his taste of the proceeds as tribute from Asaro: an attaché case filled with gold and jewelry. Defense attorney Gerald McMahon, after Asaro was held without bail at a Brooklyn Federal Court hearing, dismissed the scenario against his client as a bad Hollywood remake. Heist organizer James (Jimmy the Gent) Burke was portrayed by Robert De Niro (second from left) in the film ‘Goodfellas.’ "Marty (Scorsese) needed a script, and (U.S. Attorney) Loretta (Lynch) said she would help," said McMahon. "There's no case too old, and I do love the splash it creates. "But many of them end with much less thunder and lightning." Jack Bonventre, connected to the Bonanno crime family, is escorted by FBI agents from their Manhattan offices in New York on January 23. (BRENDAN MCDERMID/REUTERS) Asaro, in a black jacket with tinted glasses, pleaded not guilty and will not take a plea bargain, his lawyer said. Arrested along with the Howard Beach, Queens, resident was his son, family capo Jerome, 55, of Bethpage, L.I.; Bonanno boss Thomas (Tommy D) Di Fiore, 70, of Commack, L.I.; acting capo Jack Bonventre, 45, of Campbell Hall, Orange County; and soldier John (Bazoo) Ragano, 52, of the Rockaways. FBI photo of the grave that was excavated at the Ozone Park house where Paul Katz's human remains were found. A taped conversation showed Vincent Asaro was no fan of Di Fiore's promotion: "Oh, he's a c---s---er. Makes (Massino) look like St. Anthony, motherf---er." The investigation took off after the informant steered the feds to a long-secret burial site in the basement of a Queens home. The remains of Paul Katz, killed in 1969, were recovered by the FBI last June. Asaro was so rattled by word of the dig that he smashed his car into a metal pillar, court papers indicated. Asaro and his son were also accused in the 1981 arson of an Ozone Park, Queens, nightclub named Afters — as in "after the Lufthansa robbery." When Asaro learned from the owner of an Italian restaurant across the street that the club's new owners would cater to African-Americans, it was torched. Burke and his crew were forced to abandon their former hangout in South Ozone Park at a bar called Robert's Lounge, where Hill once claimed a dozen bodies were buried beneath the bocce court. Another secretly-recorded conversation found Vincent Asaro and Ragano discussing the need to collect money owed by a Gambino family associate. "When do we stab this guy in the neck?" asked Ragano. "That's what I want to know." "Stab him today," Asaro replied. "Today! Today!" Vincent Asaro faces life behind bars if convicted, while his co-defendants all face up to 20 years in prison. Asaro's rap sheet includes 21 arrests since 1957 for crimes including rape, bank robbery, kidnapping and assault. The charges, in many of the cases, were later dismissed.