Andalusian Mail Train Robbery

[5] The train in question was carrying the wages from various chartered companies to their employees, as well as mail from all over Europe to be distributed through North Africa and Gibraltar.

[2][4][5] It was traveling along the Madrid-Córdoba route, having left the Madrid Atocha railway station at 8:20 in the evening, to arrive in Córdoba at seven in the morning.

[8] The plan was that the gang would board the train in Aranjuez, taking advantage of the friendship between Sánchez Navarrete and Ors so the latter would let them in the mail car.

Donday would be in charge of getting wine spiked with a narcotic drug (Pantopon) with which to put the two postal employees—Ors and Lozano, both of whom were on patrol that night—to sleep.

[8] While the gang was boarding the train and getting ready for the heist, Donday had taken a taxicab to Alcázar de San Juan, and was waiting for them while having dinner.

[8] Once inside the train, Sánchez Navarrete greeted Ors and Lozano and introduced Teruel and el Fonda as friends of his.

But this proved unsuccessful, and the intended victims did not fall unconscious, so Teruel and el Fonda lost their nerves and began to hit them with a pair of pliers.

They hastily took some jewelry and money, and then got off the train at the Alcázar de San Juan station [es], where Donday was waiting for them with a taxicab and Miguel Pedrero, the driver.

When it arrived in the Andalusian capital at about six o'clock in the morning, the post office clerks approached the mail car to see what was going on and to collect the mailbags.

[2][5][8] The victims were traveling post officers:[10] The bodies lay amid large pools of blood, bound with ropes and straps, and showing signs of a struggle.

Thus, the police wasted no time in finding the guilty parties, which was made easier thanks to the statements by the taxicab driver, Miguel Pedrero, apart from the numerous clues the criminals left at the scene and their behavior after the robbery.

[2] The case was adapted to television in 1991 as an episode of Spanish true crime anthology series La huella del crimen.