Gunshot residue tests on nine men

Gunshot residue tests were carried out on nine suspects to establish whether they could have been involved in a failed heist on a security van carrying about €2.8 million in Sta Venera on Monday.

All nine suspects had a criminal record and were linked to theft crimes, police sources said.

Using at least three vans, a pick-up truck, a motorcycle and a bulldozer, a gang of robbers tried to ambush and break into an armoured van belonging to Security Services Ltd at about 9.30 a.m.

They blocked the van and literally tried to bulldoze their way into it from the back. However, they did not manage to break it open - the cash van is built like a safe - and the thieves had to abandon their plans.

Before they left, however, about seven shots were fired from two weapons: a shotgun and a 9mm pistol, the sources said.

One shot was fired at the driver's window, cracking, but not breaking, the bulletproof glass, which saved the lives of the driver and passenger.

The suspects' houses and garages were searched yesterday but the weapons have not yet been found.

Police are now waiting for the results of forensic tests carried out yesterday on the men and on the spent gun cartridges found on the scene. Gun residue tests involve looking for any traces of the fine powder discharged from a gun when fired. The results are expected within a few days, the sources said.

The failed ambush took place in Qormi Road, just a few metres from the former trade school Umberto Colosso, which has closed-circuit cameras monitoring the ground's perimeter. Yet, nothing of the failed heist was recorded by the security cameras. Instead of recording what was going on at street level, the cameras' lens was directed towards the sky, something that could have been easily done with a broomstick, the sources said. No one would have noticed the different angle of vision because the cameras were probably not monitored, they added.

Employees in a shop nearby said they heard the shots and ran out to see what was happening. Waving the shotgun, one of the assailants warned them to go back inside. "Go back inside or you'll get it," one of the employees reported being told. They ran back in the shop and locked the doors.

Despite failing miserably, the ambush was well planned, possibly for weeks. All the vehicles, including the bulldozer were stolen.

The van was blocked by a grey pick-up truck that stopped abruptly in front of it. The armoured van's escape route in the narrow road was completely blocked by a white van that immediately parked behind it.

A man waiting in a bulldozer, which had been parked there for several days, drove up to the van's back doors and tried to claw it open with the blade. However, things quickly went wrong when the reinforced steel doors held and the van moved forward. The pick-up truck dislodged and the bulldozer lost its leverage.

The men escaped in a white van and drove quickly to Mrieħel where another getaway van was waiting. They set the white van on fire and doused the road in diesel to prevent any one following them.