Lukas Hasselgren, a 37 year old Swedish, was arrested on December 8 in Manila for his suspected involvement in robbing a Danish bank of more than US$ 10 million in August last year.
The robbery took place on Sunday morning on 10 August 2008 at five in the morning. The robbers used a stolen 20 tons bulldozer to crash through the walls of Dansk Værdihåndtering’s building on Kornmarksvej in Broendby, a suburb to Copenhagen. While the staff was hiding, an unknown number of robbers collected money to a combined value of 62 million Danish kroner. The robbers fled in three cars stolen in Sweden.
While the robbery took place, stolen garbage vans were parked at the exits from the nearest police station and set alight with petrol. On strategic routes around the robbery, caltrops are spread on the road to stop cars from pursuing the three get-away cars.
The precision was like a military operation and the loot was the second largest in Danish history. So far only four million of the money has been found buried in a garden in Odense.
The Danish and Swedish police quickly started cooperating in the research. It is estimated at around 20 persons were part of the operation. Seventeen of them – mostly Swedish of various foreign ethnic decent – have so far been arrested.
Lukas Hasselgren was arrested by The Bureau of Immigration of the Philippines together with agents of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes. In a report to Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, the bureau’s Interpol Unit chief Floro Balato Jr. identified the Swede as 37-year-old Lukas Hasselgren. The suspect was nabbed on Dec. 8 outside his condominium at the Adriatico Place Tower II, along M. Adriatico Street, Ermita, Manila.
Libanan ordered the deportation of the fugitive to Sweden, and then to Denmark to stand trial for his crime. Swedish and Danish police have been hunting down Hasselgren since the suspect and his cohorts allegedly committed the crime in August last year.
Mogens Sorensen of the Nordic police liaison office for Southeast Asia thanked Libanan for the BI’s assistance and swift action in arresting the suspect.
“Let me once again on behalf of the police in Denmark and Sweden, expressed my gratitude to you for all the professional assistance (you have) extended to our office,” Sorensen said in his letter to Libanan.
Lukas Hasselgren will be put on trial in Denmark when he returns along with the others suspects arrested so far. The big trial is expected to start in March.
For Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, the arrest is the latest spectacular event in his relentless drive to hunt foreign fugitives hiding in the country in line with his pronounced policy not to allow the country to be used as a sanctuary by wanted alien criminals.
The creation of the Interpol Unit under the BI has the BI to establish stronger coordination with its counterparts from the Interpol and other law enforcement agencies here and abroad.
The unit is also responsible for coordinating with the police and intelligence attaches of the different foreign missions stationed in Manila, thus enhancing the agency’s capability in going after foreign fugitives hiding in the country.
Libanan said the government would not allow the country to be used as a sanctuary by wanted alien criminals.
The Interpol unit is also responsible for coordinating with the police and intelligence attachés of the different foreign missions stationed in Manila, thus enhancing the agency’s capability to go after foreign fugitives hiding in the country, he said.
