A British man arrested in Morocco in connection with Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery is a well-known cage fighter with his own website, police said on Monday.
Lee ”Lightning” Murray (26) from Sidcup in south London was detained in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday over the daring heist four months ago at a Securitas warehouse in Tonbridge, south-east of the British capital.
The robbers made off with a record £53-million.
According to his website, Murray has won eight of his last 11 matches as a cage fighter — a sport in which contestants, trained in a variety of martial arts, face off inside a steel cage.
In September last year, Lee was injured in a fracas involving knives outside the Funky Buddha, a China-themed nightclub in central London, after a 21st birthday party for a tabloid glamour model.
He was arrested on Sunday by Moroccan police at the Mega Mall shopping centre in the posh Souissi district of Rabat, along with three others who are not believed to be wanted by British police.
Kent Police’s head of serious and major crime, Detective Superintendent Paul Gladstone, said Murray ”was arrested for robbery, kidnap and other offences linked to the £53-million Securitas raid in Tonbridge, Kent in February”.
”The arrest was made with the authority of the Crown Prosecution Service, Kent Police and the Moroccan authorities,” he said. ”The man is in custody in Rabat and the UK is now seeking extradition.
”This latest development is part of our ongoing investigation and our inquiries continue. We remain determined to bring the people behind the robbery to justice.”
In a statement, the Moroccan police said the Securitas heist was ”one of the most important thefts in the annals of international criminality”, adding that local police had been tracking the suspects for four months.
”Due to the danger posed by the suspects, specialists in martial arts and firearms, Moroccan police had to use special techniques to neutralise them … without posing a risk to citizens nearby at the time of the arrest,” it said.
Gladstone, who is leading the investigation for Kent Police, also revealed on Monday that two men — from Devon and Hampshire, in south-west and south-east England — had been charged with money laundering.
He could not, however, confirm that their arrest on Friday — and the recovery of a ”significant” amount of cash — was linked to the robbery.
Britain has no formal extradition treaty with Morocco, so it will have to make a special, once-off request. An individual was last extradited from the North African country to Britain in 1995.
A Home Office spokesperson refused to confirm or deny that a formal request had been made for Murray’s extradition.
Five men and two women have already been charged in connection with the robbery, carried out in the early hours of February 22.
Car dealer John Fowler (60) of Staplehurst, Kent, has been charged with conspiracy to rob, three counts of kidnapping the depot manager, his wife and son, and handling stolen goods.
Warehouse worker Raluca Millen (25) of Dudley Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, has been charged with conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to kidnap.
Car salesperson Stuart Royle from Maidstone, Kent, unemployed Jetmir Bucpapa from Tonbridge, roofer Lea Rusha from Southborough near Tunbridge Wells and Ermir Hysenaj from Crowborough, East Sussex, have been charged with conspiracy to rob.
Hairdresser Kim Shackleton (38) from Maidstone has been charged with handling stolen goods.
They are due to appear at the Old Bailey criminal court in central London on July 10 for a plea and directions hearing. — AFP
