Bandits have raided a Samsung factory and stolen $36 million in goods

Bandits attacked a Samsung Electronics Co Ltd factory near Sao Paulo late Sunday and held workers hostage while they robbed truckloads of smartphones, tablets and notebook computers that police valued at $36 million. The dramatic heist, carried out by armed robbers who carjacked a shuttle used by factory employees, took place overnight during nearly four hours in Campinas, an industrial hub in the southeastern state of Sao Paulo. A spokesman for the state’s public security secretariat said the bandits made off with seven trucks laden with more than 40,000 Samsung products. State police are investigating the attack, he added, but said no suspects have yet been identified. A spokesman for Samsung in Sao Paulo confirmed the heist but said police estimates for the value of the stolen goods were too high. He said roughly 100 employees were present at the factory during the robbery, but declined to give further details. “We have cooperated fully with the police investigation that is underway and will do our best to avoid any sort of repeat incident,” said Samsung Eletronica da Amazonia Ltda., the manufacturing unit of the Korean electronics giant in Brazil, in a statement. The police report, as related to Reuters by the spokesman for the state security secretariat, reads like the script of a daring crime movie. After stopping the shuttle on its way to the factory, 7 armed assailants took over the vehicle while colleagues took all but two of the eight employees originally on board to a remote location, where they were set free.