Chile: 2 Dead Following a Failed $32 Million Airport Heist

An attempted airport heist of over t $32 million from a plane departing from Miami resulted in the deaths of a security officer and a suspected thief in a shootout in a Chile airport on Wednesday, according to authorities,

Latam Airlines' aircraft was carrying $32.5 million in cash that was being transferred to an armored truck when about ten heavily armed bandits managed to get past security checks and reach the runway, according to Interior Subsecretary Manuel Monsalve, AP reports.

A Directorate General of Civil Aviation, or DGAC worker and an alleged assailant were both murdered in a shootout between the suspected robbers and security guards.

The rest of the thieves ran away. Afterward, a nearby area revealed two burned-out automobiles.

"The brave action by the DGAC officials frustrated the robbery," Monsalve said, noting that the would-be robbers were "highly organized" and "very armed."

Social media videos showed bullet holes in a Delta airliner parked near the targeted Latam plane. Some gunfire can be heard in another video purportedly showing the shootout.

Passengers were not in danger, according to Ral Jorquera, director general of air traffic control.

Killed Security Officer at Chile Airport Identified

"Valuable cargo arrived on a LATAM plane from Miami which was to be taken by the Brinks (security) company, at which point the subjects burst into the area and were repelled by security officials," said prosecutor Eduardo Baeza, who oversees the investigation.

The three vehicles, driven by the thieves, arrived at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, smashed through a security gate, and made their way to the cargo area.

The 45-year-old Claudio Villar Rodriguez, who worked for the civil aviation agency, and one of the invaders were killed in a gunfight with security forces.

The police were actively searching for the suspects, according to France 24.

President Gabriel Boric promised justice would be served.

"We will pursue... those who put the lives of our compatriots at risk," he said at an event at the presidential palace, adding that the police fully support the fight against these "terrible evil."

Several Chile Airport Heist Have Happened in the Past

The airport has been a previous target of Chile's organized criminal syndicates.

After a string of multimillion-dollar robberies in 2014, the Chilean government banned the itineraries of armored van businesses, AP noted.

The government announced a 15% reduction in commercial routes and the creation of a special team of prosecutors to investigate the over a dozen thefts that had occurred so far that year.

However, two vans containing about $5 million were still robbed.

In the Santiago airport in August of that year, masked gunmen took $10 million from an armored vehicle owned by the US security firm Brinks.

After six years in the same Chile airport, criminals broke into a warehouse at Chile's international airport and made off with $14 million and one million euros.

The terminal's warehouse was broken into using a truck with the emblem of a well-known courier company, according to Oscar Figueroa, prefect of Chile's investigative police.

A business operating out of the warehouse lost its funds after being robbed.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH: Attempted robbery at Benitez Airport in Chile. Armed confrontation with police - From M.R. Aviation Channel