Lydia Spencer-Elliott
A FUGITIVE allegedly responsible for the largest robbery ever carried out in Gibraltar has been hauled back to the rock more than three years after his escape to Spain.
Moroccan national Hakim El Laghmich 34, was arrested on suspicion of Conspiracy to Commit Robbery and extradited to Gibraltar following a European Arrest Warrant from the Supreme Court.
El Laghmich was part of a gang who, in just 25 minutes, stole €1.5million from tobacco wholesalers Southease Ltd.
Three of the man’s co-conspirators are already in prison for their part in the brutal heist that took place in June 2017.
Armed with BB guns and with their faces covered, the crime group assaulted a security guard and tied up workers at the New Harbours tobacco warehouse. They then took three bags containing €500,000 each and fled.
Two of the men, Rachid Behdaoui, 53, and Samir Douaoui, 29, were arrested near the scene of the crime moments later.
Behdaoui was imprisoned for eight years and five months while his partner in crime, Douaoui, got three years and two months.
Meanwhile, El Laghmich and another of the robbers Hamza Mesmoudi, 29 went on the run across the Spanish border.
Mesmoudi was nabbed in October last year after police spotted him stepping off a ferry in Tarifa but El Laghmich has evaded his spell behind bars until now.
