Robbers have seized diamonds and other gems worth hundreds of millions of rands in an audacious ambush at one of Europe’s busiest airports.
The gang hijacked a cargo vehicle at Schiphol airport, near Amsterdam. The van was loaded with precious stones, included a R13,3-million consignment from a London firm.
Dutch police at Schiphol told The Guardian newspaper: ”A few minutes after 10am, we got a message that an armoured KLM security van, which had valuable gems in it, was robbed. The vehicle was taken by the gang, who drove it out of the airport and abandoned it in the nearby town of Hoofddorp. They stole the contents.”
Detectives are still trying to piece together the details of how the raid was carried out and exactly what was taken. But some reports suggested the gems could be worth as much as R579-million — making it one of the biggest robberies in history.
”A lot of people witnessed the robbery, both on the loading bay platform inside the airport and in Hoofddorp,” said a police spokesperson.
”It was a very threatening situation and we are talking to the two guards who were in the van when it was robbed. No one was hurt in the attack.”
The police have not confirmed what, if any, weapons were used.
The cargo, on its way back from a jewellery fair in Austin, Texas, was bound for Antwerp, Europe’s diamond capital.
KLM said that one of its security vans was stopped on the cargo ramp, away from the plane on Friday morning.
”Some of the shipment was left in the van when the robbers fled,” said a KLM spokesperson, Frank Houben. ”The rest of it is missing. Diamonds are pretty valuable. We don’t know exactly how much but it’s a very large amount. It was certainly well into the millions.”
Michel Einhorn, of Cool Diamonds, in Greville Street, north London, who lost R13,3-million of his family firm’s stock in the raid, thought the haul could be worth many millions of rands.
”I understand the entire haul could be worth as much as $100-million [R579-million]. Our stock, which was worth £1,2-million, was in the form of loose, cut diamonds, in a special Arges cut, ranging from half-carat to five-carat stones.
”Diamonds are actually very light, so they are packed in large containers with heavy packaging to make them more difficult to steal.
”This gang didn’t get up this morning and decide to rob a van full of gems. This must have been in the planning for months. But no one was harmed and we are 100% insured, so we will not be losing any sleep. All our diamonds are marked so they cannot be passed off to legitimate dealers. They are laser-inscribed so they can be identified even if they are recut.
”There are always criminals who will buy stolen diamonds but I suspect they will struggle to get rid of a haul this huge. It’s simply too big a coup to pull off.
”There have been big raids on safety deposit boxes in Antwerp and Knightsbridge. But this is the stuff of movies.”
Arges diamonds are a special cut developed recently by one of the industry’s best-known figures, Gabi Tolkowsky. The method is supposed to enhance luminosity and brilliance.
Tolkowsky was recently entrusted by DeBeers to cut one of its largest finds, the 600-carat Centenary Diamond.
The largest gem theft to date, according to the Guinness Book of Records, was from the Antwerp Diamond Centre two years ago. Raiders emptied 123 of the 160 vaults over the weekend from a strongroom. The loss was not discovered until Monday. The thieves’ haul was estimated to have been worth R580-million.
In Britain, a gang of south London criminals nearly succeeded in snatching jewels worth £350-million (R3,8-billion) from the Millennium Dome. Their operation was foiled by the police.
Kris Hollington, author of Diamond Geezers, the story of the Dome robbery, who is writing a book on airport diamond robberies, said 5% of diamonds are sold on the black market and that there are always avenues through unscrupulous dealers.
”You can’t rule out British involvement but Serbs or Croats would be top of my list of suspects. They would head to the Far East, most likely Singapore, to get rid of them.”
Peter Scott, an infamous thief who stole £2-million-worth of jewellery from Sophia Loren in 1960, said the robbers will have tremendous difficulty getting rid of the gems.
”Such a huge quantity of stones would have to be sold back into the trade and it’s highly unlikely anyone would have the money, let alone be willing to take on diamonds with this history,” he said.
”Among Ms Loren’s jewels were three necklaces — diamond and emerald, diamond and sapphire, diamond and ruby, which were all broken up and sold for a fraction of their value. I think the entire £2-million haul made about £30 000.” — Guardian Unlimited Â