A three-year hunt for an alleged insider responsible for a huge $1 million silver bullion heist has led to an arrest.
The mysterious theft of the 960kg in silver, contained within non-descript boxes wrapped in black plastic and labelled as "engineering parts", occurred in late November 2021 on the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne.
Despite Tuesday's arrest, the 192 bars, each weighing 5kg, still have not been recovered.
Curiously, the silver - which is now worth around $400,000 more than when the robbery took place - was being trucked unprotected via a common logistics service from Picton, in south-west Sydney, to Melbourne.
The theft was discovered when the truck and trailer arrived at the Melbourne depot.
Police had long held the view that it was an "inside job".
NSW State Crime Command's Robbery and Serious Crime Squad took carriage of the investigation under Strike Force Caimon and have doggedly pursued multiple lines of investigation, including making appeals to the public.
Back in 2021, CCTV was released by police of a black twin cab Toyota LandCruiser ute, which appeared to be carrying a suspicious heavy cargo in its tray, on the streets of Picton around the time of the robbery.
On Tuesday morning, detectives travelled to Wee Jasper where a 40-year-old man was taken into custody.
He was taken to Yass Police Station as detectives executed search warrants on properties at Bargo and Tahmoor, south of Sydney, seizing electronic devices and business records for forensic examination.
The man has since been charged with larceny and armed with intent to commit indictable offence.
He was refused bail to appear before the Goulburn Local Court.
