Bank robbers in Iraq steal $5.5 million after guards drink drugged tea

Iraq bank robbers steal $5 million, guards drugged

BAGHDAD — Robbers stole $5.5 million from a bank near the Iraqi city of Najaf on Friday after a policeman drugged fellow bank guards by slipping sleeping medication into their tea, police and government officials said.

Loay al-Yasiri, a provincial official in charge of security for Najaf, said the robbery took place at dawn at the state-run Al-Rafidain bank in the town of al-Mishkhab, about 20 miles south of Najaf.

A local police official and a bank official said a policeman who was guarding the bank offered cups of tea laced with sleeping medication to four guards at the bank late Thursday, knocking them out for the night.

The robbers took off with more than six billion Iraqi dinars, about $5.5 million, while the guards slept. The policeman who offered the other guards the drugged tea escaped with the thieves.

The official said not a single shot was fired and no one was hurt. The bank was just yards away from a local police station.

The bank official said the robbers used an over-the-counter sleeping medication to drug the guards. He did not elaborate.

The bank and police officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Iraq has seen an upswing of crime in the past year as political violence has eased. Authorities say they suspect criminal gangs are behind some of the crime. But in other cases, officials have accused insurgents or former insurgents of being responsible.

Last week, heavily armed gunmen robbed a gold market in Baghdad and killed 15 people. Authorities blamed al-Qaida in Iraq and said the militants are short on cash to fund their operations.