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| - Chilean police have nabbed nine suspects involved in one of the country's biggest heists, the theft of $15 million in cash from Santiago airport in March, the interior minister announced Tuesday. Gonzalo Blumel praised the police for "serious and professional work that allowed these people to be brought to justice in less than two months." Eight suspects were rounded up on Tuesday after one was arrested a few days ago, police said. Police also managed to recover around $122,000 of the stolen money. Those arrested included the gang leader, said the head of Chile's investigative police, Hector Espinosa, adding that most of them were career criminals. "The leader..is a person with a police record. The vast majority of the gang members have a police record, people who dedicate their lives to crime. They are habitual criminals," Espinosa said. The robbery occurred on March 9 when five men armed with assault rifles and pistols swooped on an armored security truck in the cargo terminal of Santiago airport, overpowered the guards and made off with the cash. The money, $14 million dollars with one million euros contained in orange-colored sacks, had arrived from abroad for distribution to Chilean banks. It was the second-biggest heist in the South American country's history. In 2017, a gang stole a cash shipment worth $19 million from the offices of a transport company just outside Santiago. The Chilean capital's airport was previously targeted in 2014, when a gang swiped $10 million. pa/dga/db/st
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