Suspects held in Lahti jewellery store robbery

Police say some of perpetrators the same as in Westerback robbery

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Helsinki Criminal Police believe that they have solved the armed robbery of the Kellokeskus jewellery and watch store in Lahti, which took place in October last year.
      Police say that two Estonian criminal organisations were behind the robbery, and that they had also been involved in the robbery of a watch and gold store in Helsinki in February 2006.
      In Lahti, the thieves got away with more than EUR 100,000 worth of watches. The stolen goods, with the exception of one watch, are still missing.
     
Police say that in addition to the two armed robbers, at least eight other Estonians were involved in the crime. Seppo Sillanpää of the Helsinki police said that the "basic pattern of the crime was the same as in other robberies" committed by the group in Finland and other European countries".
      He says that the Linnu Vabrik and Viimsi criminal organisations paid two men in Tallinn to rob the Lahti store. Four others were helping them in Lahti.
      The robbers gave the bag where they put their loot to a man waiting in a nearby doorway. Police say that the person who planned the robbery took the man with the bag and the loot into a car.
      The hold-up men drove off in another car for a short distance, after which they switched to a third vehicle. The group went back to Tallinn via separate routes.
     
Four men suspected in the robbery have been remanded in custody. Three others are already in jail suspected of the Westerback robbery.
      Three additional men have been ordered remanded in absentia. Police in Tallinn arrested one of them last week.
     
Those under remand include two suspected robbers, in addition to the suspected planner of the robbery, as well as four leading figures of the Viimsi gang.
      Sillanpää says that the planner of the Westerback robbery was also revealed in connection with the Lahti robbery. The same man is suspected of taking part in the planning both robberies.
      Still missing is the man suspected of having taken possession of the bag with the loot after the Lahti robbery.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Yet another armed robbery at jewellery store in downtown Helsinki (3.2.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat