World

Robbers snatch $50M in diamonds from Brussels airport

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Greg Campbell Contributor
Font Size:

Nearly 10 years to the day from when a gang of Italian thieves pulled off the largest diamond heist in history, a gang of robbers once again made off with a cache of diamonds in Belgium worth an estimated $50 million during an audacious heist at the Brussels international airport.

On Monday night, eight robbers cut a large hole in the airport’s security fence, drove two vehicles equipped with flashing blue lights across the tarmac to a Swiss-bound airliner filled with passengers, and brandished weapons at the flight crew to gain access to the hold.

Authorities say they loaded the vehicles with more than 100 parcels of rough, uncut diamonds and precious metals and made off again through the same breached fence. The robbery took less than five minutes.

Police later found one vehicle believe to have been used in the crime, which had been torched. The men — and the loot — have not been found.

The diamonds had been delivered to the airport in a Brinks truck from Antwerp, an international diamond trading hub, which sees about $200 million worth of diamonds flow through it on a daily basis. Security in the Antwerp Diamond District, already formidable, was beefed up in 2003, after a gang of Italian thieves known as the School of Turin breached one of its high security buildings.

They bypassed security cameras, motion detectors, heat and infrared sensors and locked doors to make off with what some investigators estimate was nearly a half billion dollars worth of diamonds, jewelry, gold, cash and other precious stones.

Four men were caught and convicted in that crime, but investigators believe others they had never identified were involved. They have all served their time and been released.

None of the diamonds have ever been recovered.

Despite the safeguards in place to protect Antwerp’s diamond industry, plots to snatch its wealth are so common that a squad of federal detectives is tasked with nothing but investigating diamond crimes. Thieves have also been known to track diamonds as they make their way between Antwerp and airports in Brussels and Amsterdam; in 2005, thieves nicked $99 million from an armored car at the Amsterdam airport.

Antwerp, ever sensitive about its ability to protect the wealth of diamond dealers, was once again shaken by Monday’s heist, particularly by the apparent ease with which the thieves breached the perimeter of the airport.

“This is causing quite some unrest,” Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Center told the Associated Press. “It was incredible how easy it all went. This is worrying in terms of competitiveness, since other diamond centers are ready to pounce and take over our position.”

Aviation experts say its unusual that there was no immediate law enforcement response to the breach in the airport’s security fence, raising broader questions about the adequacy of the airport’s security. Passengers on the looted plane were not aware of the robbery and no one was hurt.

If the final value of the stolen goods is $50 million as reported, Monday’s heist would be fifth largest jewel heist in history.

Follow Greg on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags : belgium
Greg Campbell

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel