Chile restricts armored van routes after robberies

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s government said Tuesday it will restrict the routes of armored van companies after a series of multimillion dollar robberies.

The government said that commercial routes will be cut by 15 percent, and a special team of prosecutors will be asked to investigate the more than one dozen thefts so far this year.

About $5 million were stolen from two vans on Monday.

Masked gunmen also stole $10 million at the Santiago airport from an armored car belonging to the U.S. security company Brink’s in August. It was the biggest heist of its kind in Chile’s history.

The robbery also drew comparisons to one of the largest cash thefts in American history: the Dec. 11, 1978, Lufthansa Airlines heist at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport dramatized in the hit Martin Scorcese movie “Goodfellas.”