TONBRIDGE, England (AP):
POLICE YESTERDAY arrested a man and a woman in connection with one of Britain's biggest and most audacious robberies, in which an armed gang made off with up to 50 million pounds (euro73 million, US$87 million).
Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard, at a hastily called news conference held on the steps of the Kent Police Headquarters building, announced the arrests less than 24 hours after his force's probe into the robbery began.
Calling them "significant in the early stages of our investigation," Leppard said the arrests were directly related to the robbery.
ADDRESSES BEING SEARCHED
The 29-year-old man and 31-year-old woman were arrested from two separate addresses in the Forest Hill area, in south-east London. The two addresses are now being searched by police and forensic teams.
"I can't give you any information at this stage how we've come to these arrests," Leppard said, refusing to provide any more details on the people detained by police, such as their nationalities. "All I can say is that the arrests are significant."
They were being held at separate police stations in Kent and questioned on charges of conspiracy to commit robbery.
The robbery bore striking similarities to a 2004 robbery in Northern Ireland. Police blamed criminal gangs, not terrorists.
"This is organised crime at its top level. This was planned and executed with military precision," Leppard said of Wednesday's heist in the sleepy market town about an hour's drive from the Channel Tunnel, which separates England and France.
The heist at Securitas Cash Management Ltd. began when some of the thieves, dressed as police officers, stopped the firm's manager as he drove home Tuesday about 20 miles (32 kilometres) from the cash depot. The manager got into their car, which he believed to be a police vehicle, and was handcuffed, police said.
At the same time, another team of masked thieves went to the manager's house in the town of Herne Bay and persuaded his wife and his 8-year-old son to go with them, saying the man had had an accident. The manager allegedly was told to cooperate or his family would be hurt.
After waiting several hours, the group with the manager went to the depot around 1 a.m. Wednesday and tied up the manager and 14 of the depot's employees before loading the cash into a truck, police said. It took the men about an hour to load the cash. The staff managed to escape about an hour later and called police. No one was injured in the robbery.
The Tonbridge raid bore similarities to the 2004 heist that netted thieves 26.5 million pounds (US$46.1 million). Three men _ including a bank employee _ have been charged.
In both cases, the robbers targeted a bank's cash-distribution centre _ and used hostages as the key device for breaching security. During both heists, police say, the raiders disguised themselves as police officers to gain the confidence of their victims before seizing them.
International authorities have blamed the outlawed Irish Republican Army for committing the Northern Bank robbery but police on Thursday pointed suspicions instead at a conventional organised-crime gang.
Police offered a 2-million-pound (US$3.5 million) reward for information leading to the recovery of the Tonbridge cash _ a stack that would weigh about 900 pounds (408 kilograms) according to crime expert Jeffrey Robinson.
Police issued an all-ports alert but said they were still trying to come up with a description of the robbers. Some of the men wore balaclavas and goggles.
Video footage was released of a white van the men used to carry the cash and said several other vehicles used in the heist were still missing. At Thursday night's briefing, Leppard said a red van which police believe was used by the robbers was found in the parking lot of a pub, and asked anyone who had seen it to call police.
Detectives investigating the robbery have already had more than 400 calls from tipsters.
Bank officials had not determined an exact amount that was stolen but said the notes included marked and unmarked bills.
The robbers will have a difficult time laundering or converting such a large amount of cash, said Peter Lilley, a money laundering expert at Britain's Proximal Consulting.
One option would be to take some of the cash to countries with looser monetary regulations where the money could be put in offshore accounts or invested on the property market over a long period of time to avoid detection, he said.
The depot, a single-floored, windowless building, is near the centre of Tonbridge, 30 miles (48 kilometres) southeast of London.
Schoolchildren who had heard about the drama on national television pressed their noses to train windows as they went past the scene of the crime on Thursday morning.
Located on a small industrial estate, the cash depot is surrounded by six-foot (1.80 meter) high steel fencing, and security cameras cover every entrance.
AP-NY-02-23-06 1540EST
