February 18, 2013. 19:50 -3.8 degrees Celsius according to official data. Speeding black Mercedes-Benz van blows up a security perimeter fence at Brussels International Airport. It is followed by an Audi A8. Four masked men travel in each vehicle, dressed as a policeman and armed with P-90 laser pistols and AK-40 assault rifles. They drive at full speed. Airport security cameras record as if they know where they’re going.
At the same time, several men from Brink’s Ziegler security company were loading 121 packages of diamonds of Antwerp and dozens of Gold ingot.
The stones and gold are valued at 37 million euros. Most diamonds are uncut, making them easier to sell later and harder to find in the markets. The robbers point their guns at the employees of Brink’s Ziegler and Swiss, who gave their inferiority They can do nothing but surrender goods.
A few minutes later the two cars appear charred a few kilometers from the airport. they leave nothingnot a fingerprint or a trace of DNA. It’s a Spectacular robbery that leaves airport security in very bad shape and that would lead the Belgian police headlong for years. It looks like the perfect heist, a director’s masterpiece. movie action and mystery.
A twist
Three months later, in a police operation with the participation of French, Belgian, Luxembourg and Swiss agentscoordinated by the Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office, 33 people fall.
Twenty-four of the detainees are in Brussels, eight in Switzerland and one in France. The detectives recover diamonds and gold worth five million euros. They know nothing about the other 32 million. They also seize luxury cars. The detainees are between 30 and 50 years old, many have criminal records for robberies and several have spent time in prison for other crimes.
all free
The perfect heist had been a failure. Or not. Eight years have passed since the arrests and in these eight years, little by little, the Belgian justice most of the detainees were released without charge.
Only a few have been tried. This Wednesday, a court in Brussels acquitted the last defendants. It was the last judicial degree. They are free in the absence of evidence enough to convict them, but there’s no doubt that these men staged the robbery.
The alleged ringleader, the Swiss citizen Pascal Bridgehe was arrested with the diamonds from the robbery, the five million euros of diamonds seized in Switzerland.
After his arrest, Pascal Pont assures him I didn’t know the origin of diamonds, that he was looking for buyers and that whoever sold him the diamonds was the French citizen identified by Belgian justice as Marco Bertoldi, a man convicted seven times in the past of robberies. Bertoldi was arrested on May 7, 2013 in the French city of Metz.
The investigators pull the string until they find accomplices of Bertoldi such as Nordine E, from whom 50,000 euros in cash are seized, of which He can’t explain its origin.
More than the 50,000 euros, the importance of the discovery lies in the fact that in a paper bag that held part of that money, the researchers found the fingerprints of a certain Tarik B.another of the alleged thieves.
Three weeks after the robbery, Tarik B and Nordine E meet in a hotel in Morocco to rest together for a few days. The hotel is owned by Bertoldi, the man to whom the diamonds were allegedly handed over after the robbery. In Morocco they are accompanied by a third man also accused of the robbery.
That’s all the information and all the clues available to the Belgian investigators eight years after the robbery. Insufficient to obtain a conviction.
This Wednesday, before the face of unbelief Of some police officers who participated in the investigation for years, the last four men who remained accused were eventually acquitted. No leads, no prints, no DNA, no diamonds, no money.nothing to put in your mouth.
The largest diamond heist in history continues to be the one that took place in Antwerp in February 2003, when five men broke into the security camera of the Belgian city’s Diamond Center and took a loot then equivalent to more than 130 million dollars. .
Brussels, especially for clarion
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.