List of crimes involving a silicone mask

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Realistic silicone masks have been used in crimes throughout the world. In China, criminals can obtain silicone masks cheaply from the internet and have used them for criminal activities.[1] Silicone masks have been used as a disguise to conceal identity to perpetrate crimes.[2]

Incidents[]

Year Perpetrator Crime Reference
2019 Gilbert Chikli and Anthony Lasarevitsch Wore a silicone mask to impersonate French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. In this disguise he and several others contacted politicians, business figures and large organizations across the world over Skype, claiming that France was gathering ransom money in secret to free journalists being held hostage in the Middle East by Islamist terrorists, scamming at least €55 million out of three victims before being caught. [3][4][5]
Drug lord Clauvino da Silva He had his 19-year-old daughter visit him in prison. In a bid to escape he wore a silicone mask to look like her, plus a wig and her clothing, and tried to sneak out, leaving her behind. [6]
2011 Geezer Bandit A Southern California bank robber known as the Geezer Bandit used a silicone mask to look like an old man. [7][8]
2010 Mr. X Air Canada Flight 018 Stowaway Incident, A young man taking the Air Canada Flight 018 from Hong Kong to Vancouver wore a silicone mask to impersonate a white elderly man, to use someone else's identification to get into Canada. [9]
2002 Conrad Zdzierak A white man used a mask he bought from SPFXmasks to appear as a black man and committed robberies in Cincinnati, Ohio. A man who looked like the mask was wrongfully arrested. Only after the girlfriend of the real criminal found the mask and some ink-stained money and reported it to the police, did authorities realize their mistake. [10][11]
2020 John Colletti Wore a mask to appear to be older, and used fake driver's licenses at casino self-service kiosks to steal money from people's bank accounts. [12]
2014 Benoit Constant A black man in his twenties used a mask to appear as an elderly white man to rob banks in North Carolina. Identified by police based on CCTV camera images of the get away vehicle. [13]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Silicone masks -- the new criminal weapons, retrieved 2019-11-03
  2. ^ "US criminals using film quality masks during bank robberies". December 10, 2010 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  3. ^ El-Ghobashy, Tamer. "How scammers used a silicone mask and Skype to impersonate a French minister and steal $90 million". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  4. ^ Schofield, Hugh. "The fake French minister in a silicone mask who stole millions". BBC News. BBC.
  5. ^ Agence France-Presse in Paris (March 11, 2020). "Gang impersonated Jean-Yves Le Drian, sometimes with lookalike mask, to dupe rich and famous". www.theguardian.com. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  6. ^ "Gang leader disguises himself in silicone mask of his daughter's face in jailbreak bid". The Independent. 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  7. ^ Loughran, Jack (2017-11-16). "Hollywood's silicone masks used to commit crimes, most people can't distinguish from real faces". eandt.theiet.org. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  8. ^ Bernstein, Sharon (2010-12-09). "'Hyper-realistic' masks put new faces on crime". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  9. ^ "Hong Kong conviction over 'old man' plane disguise". 2011-10-17. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-11-02.
  10. ^ "White Robber Used Black Mask to Evade Arrest". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-11-03.
  11. ^ Hutcheon, Stephen (2010-11-10). "Meet the man behind the mask". The Courier. Retrieved 2021-06-30.
  12. ^ "A man using a prosthetic mask stole more than $100,000 at casinos, prosecutors say". CBS58. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  13. ^ "North Carolina bank robber caught after using latex mask to look like old man: cops". New York Daily News. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
Retrieved from ""