A traffic police officer and an unemployed man were detained Tuesday on suspicion of staging a daring June robbery that left three dead and 131 million rubles ($4.3 million) missing from an armored van in downtown Moscow, RIA-Novosti reported.
The suspects were not identified, but the report, citing a law enforcement official, said one is employed as a traffic police sergeant in Moscow's Eastern Administrative District and both are residents of the town of Orekhovo-Zuyevo in the Moscow region.
The suspects started spending huge sums of money after the June 27 robbery, with the policeman buying a cottage in the Moscow region and his suspected accomplice — a BMW X5 vehicle, the official said, adding that most of the stolen money had been spent.
The suspects were in cahoots with the van's driver, who let them into the vehicle on Naberezhnaya Tarasa Shevchenko but was shot dead by them along with two guards, the official said.
If charged and convicted of murder, both suspects face up to life in prison.
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