Armed men, plane steal gold-silver bars from Mexican mine

A heavily armed squad of men stole an unspecified number of gold-silver alloy bars from a desert mine in northern Mexico, escaping into the remote mountains in a small plane, according to the company. The heist occurred Wednesday morning at the Mulatos mine in Sahuaripa, Sonora, as personnel of Minas de Oro Nacional, the Mexican subsidiary of Canada's Alamos Gold, were preparing to transport the bars of a gold and silver alloy out on a contracted plane at the mine's airstrip.

Suddenly, five armed men arrived, held up the mine's security personnel and a small plane landed. Within 10 minutes, the plane and the armed attackers had fled into the mountains with the bars, according to a statement from Minas de Oro Nacional. The statement said authorities were searching clandestine airstrips in the area for the plane.