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Diamond heist at Brussels airport nets gang up to £30m in gems Diamond heist at Brussels airport nets gang up to £30m in gems
(about 5 hours later)
Belgian police are looking for eight masked gunmen who stole tens of millions of pounds worth of jewels from a security van that was loading the hold of a Switzerland-bound plane. Belgian police are searching for eight masked gunmen who took less than five minutes to pull off one of the most spectacular diamond heists in recent years, stealing precious stones worth about £30m (US$50m) from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane on a Brussels runway.
The raid at Brussels airport happened just before 8pm on Monday. The heavily armed men drove through the airport security fence in two vehicles, a Mercedes van and a car, and made straight for a Brink's delivery van. The staff were loading safes full of diamonds on to a Swiss plane bound for Zurich. The gunmen quickly filled their vehicles with the boxes and fled through the same broken security barrier. No shots were fired. A burned-out van was later found nearby. The raid lasted just three minutes. The exact value of brute diamonds, believed to hail from Antwerp, was uncertain, but estimates put it at £30m ($50m). "What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre told the Belgian VRT network. The biggest diamond theft in recent years took place at Brussels airport just before 8pm on Monday night, the prosecutor's office said.
An airport spokesman, Jan Van Der Crujsse, said the gunmen made a hole in the perimeter fence, and drove right up to the Swiss plane, which was ready to leave. The men flashed their weapons and took the boxes of jewels from the hold. The men, who were armed with machine guns and dressed in police uniforms, broke through a hole they had made in the airport security fence in two vehicles, a Mercedes van and a car, and they made straight for a Swiss passenger plane operated by Helvetic Airways.
Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said. Staff from a high-security van operated by Brinks had just finished unloading the diamonds that were to be transported on the plane bound for Zurich.
The Swiss flight, operated by Helvetic Airways, was cancelled. Swiss, an affiliate of Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, declined to comment on the heist, citing the ongoing judicial investigation. The men flashed machine guns but no shots were fired as they took 120 parcels from the plane's hold, stacking them in their vehicles. They fled at high speed through the hole in the security fence. The van believed to have been used in the raid was later found burnt out just outside Brussels.
The insurance for air transport, handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies, is usually relatively cheap, because it's considered to be the safest way of transporting small high-value items, logistics experts say. Ine Van Wymersch, spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor, said: "They were well prepared. There were passengers on the plane but they saw nothing of what was going on."
A decade ago, Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting, was the scene of what was probably one of the biggest diamond heists in history, when robbers took precious stones, jewels and gold from the high-security vaults at Antwerp's Diamond Centre in 2003. Police stsimated the haul at £64m. The prosecutor would not comment on the exact value of the stolen parcels, believed to contain rough and polished diamonds intended for different handlers in Switzerland.
The Diamond Centre stands in the heart of the high-surveillance diamond district where police and dozens of cameras work around the clock, and where security has been beefed up further since the spectacular 2003 robbery. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre, a trade body for Antwerp diamond businesses, estimated the value at close to £30m. "What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," its spokeswoman Caroline De Wolf told the Belgian VRT TV network. "In any case, it's one of the biggest robberies we've seen," she told Associated Press.
Antwerp has been a leading diamond centre for centuries, with about eight in every 10 rough diamonds and five in every 10 polished diamonds passing through it.
In 2003, Antwerp was the scene of one of the biggest diamond heists in history, when thieves took precious stones, jewels and gold from the high-security vaults at its diamond centre. Police estimated the value of that haul to be £64m.
Monday's heist was a fresh blow to the Antwerp diamond industry.
"This is causing quite some unrest," said De Wolf. "It was incredible how easy it all went. This is worrying in terms of competitiveness, since other diamond centres are ready to pounce and take over our position."
The consignment of diamond parcels being delivered by plane was not extraordinary; on any given day, about US $200m in polished and rough stones go through Antwerp's diamond centre. Air transport is a common means of delivering precious stones and thought to be the safest.
The Brussels airport heist raised immediate questions of how the security fence could have been breached so fast.
An airport spokesman, Jan Van Der Crujsse, said the gunmen made a hole in the perimeter fence. Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said.
In 2000, British detectives foiled what was described as potentially "the world's biggest robbery" when they stopped a gang who used a bulldozer to break into London's Millennium Dome in an attempt to steal £350m worth of diamonds that were on show.