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8 more arrests in $45M bank heist

January 8, 2014

Nearly a year after a bank job that siphoned off $45 million from two Middle East FIs, Spanish police have announced the arrest of another eight suspects alleged to belong to the gang that carried out the heist.

Authorities in Madrid have taken into custody six Romanians and two Moroccans who are alleged to have made fraudulent ATM withdrawals totaling $392,000, a PC World article said, using prepaid gift card data obtained from two transaction processors in a computer hacking exploit. 

So far, law enforcement organizations in the U.S., Germany and now Spain have arrested a total of more than 20 suspects on charges related to the theft.

The alleged ring-leader, Alberto Lajud-Pena fled from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, where he was killed by three men who confessed to authorities that they had intended to rob him, according to a report by Miami Newsday.

The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah PSC reported losses of around $4.7 million in the gang's first attack in December 2012. In a second attack in February the Bank of Muskat was defrauded of approximately $40 million.

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