Turkish police detained an alleged gang of jewelry robbers, who stole 20kg of gold bars out of an armored vehicle in Istanbul on April 12.

Law enforcement agents began studying records from security cameras installed in the territory, where the gold was stolen. The details of the crime were available after examining 1500-hour records, Turkish media reports.

The investigation revealed that three citizens of Venezuela, a citizen of Brazil and an Italian citizen of Armenian origin Gevorg Plojyan came to Istanbul several days before the robbery.

The investigation found out that that an armored vehicle with jewelry was being followed by a car. When the armored vehicle came to a stop due to traffic light, a car approached it from the left side and engaged the driver in conversation in an attempt to distract him. At the same time, a motorcyclist came up to the vehicle from the right side and blew out the tire. When the driver of the armored vehicle was repairing the blown-out tire, the three Venezuelans used the opportunity to steal a suitcase with gold bars and fled the location.

Later, the robbers met at a 5-star hotel in Istanbul. After the incident, the Venezuelans left for Paris, whereas the Brazilian and Italian citizens took the gold to a jewelry store owned by Armenian Abraham Ohanyan. After the latter added copper to the gold and stamped it, the criminals left for Beirut.

Police detained the owner of the jewelry store Abraham Ohanyan, his worker Sargis Kasabyan, one of the drivers and three others. The police claimed that Ohanyan personally invited Gevorg to Turkey to carry out the robbery, while Ohanyan refuted the reports saying he learned the gold was stolen from the press.

Turkish police have asked Interpol for help to capture criminals and return the stolen gold.