Cold Open

It’s January 31st, 2004, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Two fighters grapple inside a chain-link cage at the center of the packed arena. 28-year-old Englishman Lee Murray struggles to stay upright. He’s only seconds into his first Ultimate Fighting Championship bout, but his opponent already has a firm hold around his torso.

The UFC is a fast-growing mixed martial arts franchise in which the best fighters earn six-figure sums per fight. But not everyone benefits from such a big payday. Since this is Lee’s debut at a UFC event, he’s only getting paid $3000 for tonight. But Lee doesn't mind, he's looking at the long game. He’s prepared to work his way up the UFC ladder to the big money—and the only way to do that is to win tonight’s fight and be selected for a more lucrative bout.

Lee tenses his body as his opponent lifts him off his feet and body slams him to the canvas. The other fighter keeps a tight grip as they wrestle on the mat, and Lee thrashes to avoid being trapped in a painful submission hold.

Unable to pin Lee down, his opponent pulls back to punch Lee in the head. But it’s a mistake because Lee uses the extra space to wrap his legs around his opponent’s neck, attempting a choke hold. His opponent is too strong for that, but as he tries to pull away from Lee’s legs, Lee grabs his opponent’s arm and pulls it hard, hyperextending the elbow.

Lee's opponent knows his elbow is about to dislocate. So, he frantically slaps the canvas with his other hand to signal his submission.

As the referee motions that that's the end of the bout, Lee lets go and races to celebrate with his friends and family in the crowd. He's just won his debut fight in the UFC—and it only took him one minute and forty-five seconds.

Although Lee’s professional fighting career gets off to a good start, he won’t get the chance to rise through the UFC ranks as he hoped. Within weeks of this victory, Lee will be charged with assault following an altercation with a driver, making it all but impossible for him to get another visa in order to fight in the United States again. So, rather than seek his fortune in a mixed martial arts arena, Lee will turn to a life of crime instead, and in this new career, the former UFC fighter will become the mastermind behind Britain’s largest cash robbery on February 21st, 2006.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is February 21st, 2006: The Securitas Depot Robbery.

Act One

It’s early evening on February 21st, 2006, on a road near Maidstone, Kent in southeast England, two years after Lee Murray’s first and last UFC fight.

45-year-old Colin Dixon drives home after a long day at work, his mind wandering as he listens to the radio. Colin is the manager of the Securitas cash depot—a secure warehouse where currency is held before it’s distributed to shops and banks. It’s a high-pressure job, and he looks forward to these few minutes of peace in the car at the end of each shift.

But suddenly the sound of police sirens spoils Colin’s serene journey home. He looks in the rear-view mirror and sees flashing blue lights on a car following close behind. The driver is gesturing to the side of the road. And Colin groans as he realizes he’s been tailed by an unmarked police car.

Colin’s job comes with security risks, and he has clear instructions about what to do if a situation like this arises. He’s supposed to ignore the demands to pull over and drive to the nearest police station instead. But Colin suspects that he lost focus and might have drifted above the speed limit. So tonight, Colin decides it’s easier to get a ticket and resume his journey home rather than follow protocol and be delayed.

Colin steers his car to the edge of the road and stops, and the unmarked police car parks behind. Colin politely complies when two uniformed police officers ask him to get out of his car, but then he begins to panic when the officers snap handcuffs around his wrists and lead him to their vehicle. This is a bit of an overreaction to speeding, and Colin’s worst fears are confirmed when the officers bundle him into the back of their car and pull out a handgun. In a brusque and business-like manner, they tell Colin that he’s being abducted. These aren’t police officers, but criminals in disguise.

Then the fake police drive Colin to an isolated farm. There, his heart sinks when he sees the pale, scared faces of his wife and children—taken from his family home. But the criminals assure Colin that no harm will befall him or his family as long as he helps the gang carry out their plan: robbing the Securitas cash depot that Colin manages.

Over the next few hours, the kidnappers interrogate Colin about his place of work. They want to know everything about its layout, its security procedures, and the members of staff who work the night shift. Then, after a brief farewell with his family, Colin gets back into his car with one of the fake police officers, who keeps his hand on his gun as Colin drives back to the cash depot and presses the buzzer to open the gate. Once they’re inside, Colin and the fake officer go to the security booth and order the night watchman out at gunpoint.

Colin then re-opens the main gate to allow in a truck carrying four more members of the gang. They enter the warehouse wearing masks to hide their faces. They tie up the night-shift workers, but soon uncover a problem—they don’t know how to operate the machinery to load their truck with cash. So, Colin and a co-worker are told to fill up the truck while the thieves watch their every movement, guns drawn. Colin, however, works as slowly as possible, and notices his colleague is doing the same. Eventually, one of the criminals, carrying a stopwatch, announces that they have been there too long. It’s getting risky for them to stay any longer. They’ll have to go with the truck half-full.

An hour and a half after the heist began, the gang leaves. Only when the depot manager Colin is sure that the criminals are gone does he raise the alarm. And within minutes, dozens of police vehicles are racing to the scene of the robbery. As the night-shift workers wait for help to arrive, Colin checks the money cages. They were full of banknotes earlier in the night, but by Colin’s reckoning, the criminals have taken at least £20 million.

His quick calculations will soon prove to be an underestimate, though. A more detailed count will come up with a total loss of £53 million, making the Securitas Depot heist the biggest cash robbery in British history. But the scale of the crime also means that the police will leave no stone unturned in their investigation. And the daring gang behind the robbery will soon be on the run.

Act Two

It’s the morning of February 22nd, 2006, a few hours after the alarm was raised following the Securitas Depot Robbery.

In the depot’s cramped security booth, Detective Chief Inspector Mick Judge peers a grainy CCTV footage on a black-and-white screen.

The Chief Inspector has been named as lead investigator into the robbery. Overnight, other police officers have interviewed the depot manager Colin Dixon, his family and the workers who were held hostage during the raid. Specialists are combing the depot for forensic evidence, hoping to find fingerprints or traces of DNA. And now Chief Inspector Judge is reviewing the depot’s security footage, alongside a junior colleague.

There were five different gang members involved in the heist, but all concealed their identities with masks, so the robbers have been given nicknames based on their appearances in the CCTV footage. The man who donned a fake uniform and drove to the depot in Colin’s car is called “Policeman”. Next, the junior officer points out the men he’s dubbed “Shorty”, “Hoodie” and “Mr. Average.” Then, he taps the screen on the fifth member of the gang who’s timing the heist and finally calls it to a halt. This man is “Stopwatch.” Chief Inspector Judge scrutinizes “Stopwatch” as he orders the other criminals around. And after a moment or two, the Chief Inspector declares that “Stopwatch” must be the leader of the gang.

Chief Inspector Judge knows that the longer the gang remains at large, the harder it will be to catch them. Given that time is of the essence, and he doesn’t yet have any idea who the criminals are, the Chief Inspector authorizes news of the robbery to be released to the media. He also issues some of the grainy CCTV footage showing the perpetrators along with descriptions of the vehicles involved, hoping that a member of the public might recognize them.

Chief Inspector Judge is soon rewarded. Over the following two days, some of the vehicles used by the criminals are tracked down. First, kidnapped depot manager Colin Dixon’s car is discovered in the parking lot of a pub. Then a hotel manager calls to report, that a white van was left abandoned a nearby. When officers get into the vehicle, they find a balaclava, a gun, a bulletproof vest, and a bag containing more than £1 million in cash.

Police officers hunt down the owner of the van and place him under arrest. And after investigating this man’s associates, they arrest two more possible gang members. In the home of one of these suspects, officers discover another balaclava, a police radio scanner, and surveillance footage of Colin Dixon’s home.

Chief Inspector Judge’s efforts are paying off. The net appears to be closing on the criminal gang. And over the next two days, three other men are arrested, as a search reverence continues. Police find cages from the Securitas depot at a nearby farm, and Colin and his family confirm that it’s the same place where they were held on the night of the robbery. Police also then locate a shipping container containing more than £9.5 million in cash.

Chief Inspector Judge and his team of investigators celebrate every arrest, but one of the criminals remains frustratingly out of reach: the presumed leader of the gang “Stopwatch.” None of the arrested suspects are prepared to rat on each other and give up the names of their fellow conspirators, but police officers painstakingly analyze their social networks and known associates to realize that one name links everyone involved: Lee Murray.

Chief Inspector Judge soon discovers that Lee is a talented mixed martial arts fighter with a criminal record for assault. But there is little solid evidence linking Lee with the crime, until Chief Inspector Judge makes a breakthrough. Under intense questioning, one of the co-conspirators breaks down and agrees to talk, finally giving up the names of the criminals—and Lee Murray is among them.

Chief Inspector Judge orders his team to track down Lee, but despite their best efforts, the detectives cannot locate him—until they receive a tip that he fled the country under a false identity when the first gang members were arrested.

Over the next few weeks, British detectives will trace Lee’s escape route through Europe to a hideout in Morocco—but Lee’s choice of refuge will present new challenges for the detectives tasked with bringing him to justice.

Act Three

It’s June 25th, 2006, at the Mega Mall in Rabat, Morocco; five months after the Securitas Depot Robbery.

Lee Murray laughs and jokes as he exits a boutique clothes shop with three friends, all associates from the seedy criminal underworld. But Lee’s good mood dissolves as he notices that the mall is eerily quiet.

For the past few months, Lee has lived a life of luxury in Morocco. He’s bought a mansion and spent a fortune on high-spec gym equipment. He’s made no attempt to hide his identity, and even commissioned a local artist to paint an elaborate mural depicting his sole UFC fight. Lee thinks he can be so open about his whereabouts because his father is Moroccan, and Lee has dual citizenship—and since there’s no extradition treaty between Morocco and Britain, Lee is confident that the police can’t touch him. But he’s underestimated the determination of the British authorities.

As Lee and his friends glance uneasily around the quite mall, Moroccan police officers suddenly storm inside and demand Lee get down on the ground with his hands behind his back. Despite being outnumbered and caught by surprise, Lee refuses to surrender without a fight. After a short but violent struggle, he and his friends are subdued, but several policemen nurse bloody noses in the aftermath.

And then when drugs are found in a search of Lee’s mansion, he’s charged with possession and resisting arrest. Two of his accomplices are deported to Britain, but thanks to his dual nationality, Lee avoids that fate. Even so, he doesn’t get away with his part in the Securitas depot robbery. After months of diplomatic negotiations at the highest level, the Moroccan government agrees to prosecute Lee for the heist in a Moroccan court.

So, on June 9th, 2010, four years after the Securitas Depot Robbery, Lee is found guilty of planning and carrying out the crime. He is sentenced to twenty-five years in prison in Morocco. And that's where he remains. But although Lee is behind bars, £32 million of the money that went missing remains unrecovered after it was stolen during the biggest cash robbery in British history, on February 21st, 2006.

Outro

Next on History Daily. February 22nd, 1983. After opening and closing on the same night, Moose Murders becomes the most notorious flop in Broadway history.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mischa Stanton

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.