Brussels Diamond Heist
On the 18th of February at Brussels Airport, a massive diamond heist took place. There were suspected to be 8 individuals involved, using two black vehicles with police markings and also wearing police attire. The presumed total value of the uncut precious gems has been estimated to be around $50m (£32m, 37m euros).
The 8 burglars broke into the airport by cutting a hole in the fence that surrounds the airport. After breaking through the fence the burglars headed towards the Helvetic airways plane where the diamonds had just been put inside the cargo hold. The burglars were armed and threatened security with their weapons but no one was injured as no shots were fired. However they got past security with ease for they were armed. Once they had made it past security they headed straight towards the aeroplane which was just about to take off and they broke into the hold and quickly stole the load of uncut diamonds. The burglars accomplished all this in just a matter of minutes. This diamond heist was one of the biggest in history. An unnamed spokeswoman from the Antwerp world diamond centre said ‘about 150m euros’ worth of stones move in and out of the city every day’ she also said that the thieves were ‘professionals’.
Diamond heists are getting quite common now a days, every couple of years a group of thieves get away with a diamond heist, others try but don’t succeed. There have been many successful diamond heists in history, some huge some not so big. Some of the most recent diamond heists were; the first took place at The Damiani showroom in Milan, Italy on February 3rd 2008, approximately $20 million worth of diamonds were stolen. Also on December 4th 2008 at the Harry Winston store, Paris, France, a group of thieves dressed as women stole around $107 million of diamonds. The most recent successful large diamond heist except from the Brussels diamond heist took place at Graff Diamonds, London, England on August 6th 2009, a group of thieves stole Approximately $65 million of diamonds. To conclude diamond heists are the biggest thieving crimes ever and just now we have no way to stop them or know when and how people plan them.
By Ewan, Samuel and Liam.