Group arrested for mugging people outside banks in the outskirts of southern Santiago

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SANTIAGO.- Police officers working with officials from the South Metropolitan Public Prosecutor’s Office have arrested six individuals linked to two groups of criminals who had been robbing clients outside of Bank of Chile and Santander branches in the municipalities of La Florida and La Cisterna.

Both groups had been working along the Gran Avenida main road and had been using the same method to carry out the robberies.  The groups had been operating with one member inside the bank who watched for clients who withdrew more than 2 million pesos and then used a cellular phone to inform the rest of the individuals waiting on the street.

The assailants then slashed the tires of their victims or rammed into the back of their car, forcing them to stop and get out of the vehicle, where they were then threatened and robbed of the money that they had withdrawn.