Cameras recorded one of the vehicles used in the theft.

Detectives today revealed that the gang behind a sophisticated raid on a Securitas cash depot could have escaped with up to £50 million [$80+ million]. The extraordinary operation was planned and executed with military precision by professional gangsters operating at the highest levels of organised crime.

The raid began on Tuesday evening, when the manager from the depot – named this afternoon as Colin Dixon, of Herne Bay in Kent – was stopped by what he believed was an unmarked police car as he drove home from work. He was driving his silver Nissan Almera on the northbound carriageway of the A249 at about 6.30pm…

In a synchronised operation, Mr Dixon’s wife, Lynne, and their eight-year-old son, were visited at their home in Herne Bay by two men, who also said that they were police officers. She was told that there had been an accident involving her husband. She gathered her son and they were driven off.

At a second rendezvous Mr Dixon was threatened at gunpoint and shown his family being held. He was told to co-operate or they would be at risk.

At 1am yesterday the gang drove Mr Dixon by car to the depot, followed by a white lorry. He was made to let into the depot at least six masked members of the gang, some armed. The 14 staff were overpowered and tied up with plastic handcuffs.

The depot is part of a network run by Securitas, Europe’s biggest cash transportation company. Four years ago it set up a “bulk cash management” company, with the help of HSBC and Barclays. Instead of individually transporting and storing money, the company gave the banks the opportunity to cut costs by using only a few anonymous sites to store cash, protected by the most sophisticated security equipment.

I’ve worked for some of the best security firms in the world. We installed defensive systems which included panic rooms and individual rf panic buttons. None of it means a damn when your family is put at risk.