Royal Mint of Spain Heist

**Royal Mint of Spain Heist** is a heist that took place from Friday October 21, 2016 around 10 a.m. to Wednesday October 26, 2016 at 6:32 p.m.

## Context

On October 21, 2016 at around 10 a.m., eight robbers entered the Royal Mint of Spain, following the Professor's orders. Their goal is to print €2.4 billion in small denominations of 50 euros, in less than eleven days, and that without shedding a single drop of blood. However, they will have to watch over sixty-seven hostages.

The mastermind of this plan was Jesús Marquina, the Professor's father.

## Notable Participants

### Robbers

**The Professor
(leader)****Berlin
(second-in-command)****Tokyo****Nairobi**
**Rio****Denver****Helsinki****Moscow****Oslo**
### Hostages

**Arturo Román****Mónica Gaztambide****Alison Parker (Little Lamb)****Pablo Ruiz**
**Ariadna Cascales****Mercedes Colmenar****Francisco Torres** **Jacinto****Silvia**
**Aurora Cruz****Amanda Cerdeña****Denise Soares****Elisabeth López** **Sonsoles Alvarez**
 **Rafita** **Javi**
### Police

**Raquel Murillo
(Lead Investagator)****Ángel Rubio
(second-in-command)****Alfonso Prieto****Suárez****Commissioner Sánchez**
**Alberto Vicuña****Garcia Lobo****Pilar****Gómez****Almansa**
## The Professor's Plan

By recruiting his eight robbers, the Professor explains from the start that he does not want names, personal questions, or intimate relationships between the robbers: NPPRP (Ningún Nombre, Preguntas Personales, o Relaciónes Personales).

The goal is to hold up the Royal Mint of Spain in Madrid to print their own untraceable banknotes without shedding the single drop of blood in order to remain "Robin Hoods". The Professor hopes to print €2.4 billion.

## Entering the Mint

On Friday October 21, 2016 at 8:35am, the robbers are travelling in a van wearing Dali masks.

At around 9:25am October 21, 2016, the eight robbers intercept the convoy delivering the watermarked paper to the mint while it was on the Carretera Commercal E-80. The policemen, Javi and Rafita are held at gunpoint and forced to hand over their police uniform which the robbers then wear. They put on red jumpsuits and are put in the back of the truck. This allows the robbers to enter the mint discretely while being escorted by police.

At 10:16am, the robbers make their way to the Royal Mint. Once inside the building, they pretend that they are committing a typical heist. They activate the alarm and walk out with a couple of bags of bills, pretending to be surprised when the police arrive. However, this is all part of an act. The robbers did not intend to rob the mint, instead, they intended to buy enough time to print €2.4 billion.

## Little Lamb

The Professor decides to begin the heist on October 21, 2016, as it is the day that Brighton College would visit the Royal Mint of Spain Heist. One of the students, Alison Parker (nicknamed "Little Lamb") is of interest to the robbers as she is the daughter of the Ambassador of the United Kingdom. They planned on using her to give them more bargaining power when negotiating with police. This also pressured the police to try to forcibly enter the mint to maintain good diplomatic relations. Raquel was against the idea of entering the mint, however, Colonel Prieto explains that these are orders from above, as rescuing Alison Parker is a priority. When the police attempted to enter, they drilled a small hole and inserted a small camera. To their surprise, they saw robbers inside, wearing masks and armed with machine guns, waiting for them to enter.

The robbers also force Alison to say on video that all hostages are dressed in red jumpsuits, just like the robbers. This makes police hesitant about entering the mint.

Raquel is angry at Colonel Prieto for going ahead with the plan to attempt to enter the mint, and decides that she longer wants to be on the case.

After this, the hostages begin printing bank notes at the rate of €8 million per hour.

## Raquel meets the Professor

On Saturday at 06:25am, 20 hours into the heist, Raquel Murillo meets the Professor for the first time at the Bar Hanoi. He lends her his phone so she can call her mother.

She also leaves Superintendent Sánchez a voice message to inform him that she no longer wishes to be on the case.

By morning, all streets downtown were closed and all TV channels broadcasted the heist live for 24 hours.

## A Statement

Mónica Gaztambide, accompanied by 6 other people, all wearing Dali Masks and red jumpsuits come out the entrance of the mint. Mónica takes off her mask and speaks into a megaphone, making a statement on behalf of the robbers. She asks the police not to shoot and reveals that there are 67 hostages in perfect health and well cared for. She also explains that the hostages are dressed exactly the same of the robbers, so any attempts of assault could cost lives.

Back at the police station, an officer is able to identify that the person holding the megaphone for Mónica is a robber. They ask for permission to shoot, but Ángel tells them not to.

## Requests

Berlin looks for hostages to help with a task, and picks Pablo Ruiz, Arturo Román and one other man.

Some of the hostages request for medication. Sonsoles Alvarez is distressed and asks for tranquilizers to calm her down. Another hostage requests medication for diabetes, Ariadna Cascales asks for Sertraline and Mónica Gaztambide asks for an abortion pill. Alison Parker asks the robbers to help delete an image from the internet, however it is out of his hands. Berlin offers to let all the hostages send a video message to their families.

Moscow brings the chosen hostages to a basement and asks them to break the concrete ground along a dotted line. He tells them they can dig up to 48 metres underground before they get to a sewer pipe. Moscow gives them 3 hours to complete the task. They later discover petrol, ammunition and explosives while looking around the basement.

## First look inside the mint

Alison tries to record a video with her phone to send to her family, but is too distressed to continue. While Alison takes a break, Tokyo and Rio get into an argument. While Rio is distracted, Alison tries to delete a photo from her social media account. The police hack into the cameras on Alison's phone and sees the phones taped onto the wall. Rio rushes over when he sees Alison with her phone and throws it away, inadvertently showing his face to the police while doing so.

After Raquel returns to the case, the police show her the footage from Alison's phone. Over the phone, the Professor asks the police to deliver the medication that is requested by the hostages, but Raquel offers to give a reduced sentence if he ends the heist immediately. She lets him know that she is serious by revealing that she has seen the picture of phones taped to the wall.

The Professor calls Berlin who confirms that there are no security cameras in the building. He concludes that the picture must have been taken by a hostage and orders Berlin to find the phone. Berlin asks for permission to execute the hostage who is responsible for the photo, but the Professor refuses.

Downstairs, Arturo tells Mónica about the explosives that he found and urges her to find his phone in his office and call the police.

Berlin interrogates the hostages and asks whoever leaked the image to step forward. Rio watches uncomfortably, knowing that he was responsible for the photo. As Berlin begins to order other robbers to strip search the hostages, Rio can't take it anymore and decides to reveal the truth. Berlin has Oslo and Helsinki beat up Rio to teach him a lesson, angering Tokyo, who shoots at several cameras.

Using facial recognition, the police discover that prior to the heist, both Rio and Tokyo visited the mint, and they manage to uncover their real identities.

## Arturo's phone

Food and medication is delivered. While Oslo is watching over the hostages in Arturo's office, Mónica manages to get Arturo's phone discretely. Denver, who delivers the medication, tries to talk Mónica out of aborting her baby and offers her some cash.

However, as Mónica walks away with cash, the phone in her pocket rings. Berlin orders Denver to kill Mónica. Unable to kill her, Denver shoots her in the leg to create a realistic murder scene, and hides her in Vault 2 of the mint.

## Arturo is shot

Moscow is distraught after hearing that Denver has killed a hostage, and attempts to escape.

32 hours into the heist, Denver decides to have hostages accompany him and Moscow to the roof of the mint to get some fresh air. All the robbers and hostages are wearing red jumpsuits and masks, so the police are unable to identify them.

Arturo overhears Moscow and Denver's conversation about Mónica, and believes that they murdered her. In a fit of rage, he waves a fake gun at them, leading the police to believe that he is a robber, and they shoot him.

## Trojan Horse

Prior to the heist, the Professor predicted that the police would try to enter the mint at some point. He finds a way to turn this situation to his advantage. When Ángel enters the mint, the Professor spots him on the video surveillance footage and tells the robbers insert a miniature microphone into his glasses. This way, when Ángel returns to the police tent and speaks to other police officers, the Professor can overhear their plans and stay one step ahead throughout the heist.

## Valencia Plan

When the Professor gives the order to activate the Valencia plan, the robbers shoot rollers, while the hostages scream with all their might. This noise gives the impression of a shooting in the mint, alerting the police. The goal is to force the police to react quickly without thinking.

## Cameroon Plan

The Cameroon plan consists about being loved by the public. The Professor explains that people will always support the underdog. For example, if Cameroon plays against Brazil in a World Cup final, people will support Cameroon because they believe the Cameroonian team is no match for the Brazilian team.

## Chernobyl Plan

The Chernobyl plan is only to be used in desperate situations. The Professor only explained this plan to Berlin, and it was kept a secret from the other robbers. The purpose of this plan is to create a commotion in the streets. This plan did not end up being used.