12 arrested over spectacular robbery of a Saudi prince in Paris
The tale of the heist is more believable as a Hollywood movie than as a real life event.
Prince Abdul Aziz Bin Fahd's convoy, full of armed bodyguards, was winding its way through Port de la Chapelle from a plush Paris hotel to an airport in Le Bourget when two black BMWs sped up on the motorcade and forced the lead car to the side of the road.
Out of the BMWs came a gang of "between five and eight" thieves clad in balaclava's and wielding AK-47's, AFP reports. They hijacked the lead car - a Mercedes passenger van - which held three aides to the prince, a briefcase with 250,000 in euros, the prince's medication, and "sensitive diplomatic documents" in a crime that police said had to of involved "inside knowledge."
At the time of the heist, a police official was quoted by AFP saying "there aren't that many groups capable of such an attack. We know from the way they acted that they were more than small-time bandits - more so from than the amount of money they stole."
Nobody was hurt in the attack. The prince himself was apparently already at the airport when his convoy was attacked, RFI notes.
ReutersAbdul Aziz Bin Fahd pictured on the far right.The Mercedes as well as one of the BMWs were later found burnt to a crisp in a suburb 25 miles northeast of Paris, the New York Times reported.
The thieves were celebrated by the public following the attack as modern day Robin Hood's, AFP said, as the 42-year-old prince has a reputation as a playboy with expensive tastes. He had been wrapping up a two month vacation in the french capital.