Massive diamond heist in Belgium

[chitoryu12]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/thieves-steal-millions-in-diamonds-at-brussels-airport.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&

BRUSSELS — They arrived at Brussels Airport armed with automatic weapons and dressed in police uniforms aboard two vehicles equipped with blue police lights. But their most important weapon was information: the eight hooded gangsters who on Monday evening seized diamonds worth tens of millions of dollars from a passenger plane preparing to depart for Switzerland knew exactly when to strike — just 18 minutes before takeoff.

Forcing their way through the airport’s perimeter fence, the thieves raced, police lights flashing, to Flight LX789, which had just been loaded with diamonds from a Brink’s armored van from Antwerp, Belgium, and was getting ready for an 8:05 p.m. departure for Zurich.

“There is a gap of only a few minutes” between the loading of valuable cargo and the moment the plane starts to move, said Caroline De Wolf, a spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, an industry body that promotes the diamond business in Belgium. “The people who did this knew there was going to be this gap and when.”

They also knew they had to move swiftly in a secure airport zone swarming with police officers and security guards. Waving guns that the Brussels prosecutors’ office described as “like Kalashnikovs,” they calmly ordered ground staff workers and the pilot, who was outside the plane making a final inspection, to back off and began unloading scores of gem-filled packets from the cargo hold. Without firing a shot, they then sped away into the night with a booty that the Antwerp Diamond Centre said was worth around $50 million but which some Belgian news media reported as worth much more.

The thieves’ only error: they got away with 120 packets of diamonds but left some gems behind in their rush.

“They were very, very professional,” said the Brussels prosecutor Ine Van Wymersch, who said the whole operation lasted barely five minutes. The police, she added, are now examining whether the thieves had inside information. “This is an obvious possibility,” she said.

Passengers, already on board the plane awaiting takeoff, had no idea anything was amiss until they were told to debark because their Zurich-bound flight, operated by Helvetic Airways, had been canceled.

“I am certain this was an inside job,” said Doron Levy, an expert in airport security at a French risk management company, Ofek. The theft, he added, was “incredibly audacious and well organized,” and beyond the means of all but the most experienced and strong-nerved criminals. “In big jobs like this we are often surprised by the level of preparation and information: they know so much they probably know the employees by name.”

He said the audacity of the crime recalled in some ways the so-called Pink Panther robberies, a long series of brazen raids on high-end jewelers in Geneva, London and elsewhere attributed to criminal gangs from the Balkans. But he said the military precision of Monday’s diamond robbery and the targeting of an airport suggested a far higher level of organization than the cruder Pink Panther operations.

The police have yet to make any arrests related to the airport robbery, said the prosecutor, but have found a burned-out white van that they believe may have been used by the robbers. It was found near the airport late on Monday.

Scrambling to crack a crime that has delivered an embarrassing blow to the reputation of Brussels Airport and Antwerp’s diamond industry, the Belgian police are now looking into possible links with earlier robberies at the same airport. The airport, which handles nearly daily deliveries of diamonds to and from Antwerp, the world’s leading diamond trading center, has been targeted on three previous occasions since the mid-1990s by thieves using similar methods to seize gems and other valuables. Most of the culprits in those robberies have been caught.

Jan Van Der Cruysse, a spokesman for the airport, insisted that security was entirely up to international standards, but “what we face is organized crime with methods and means not addressed in aviation security measures as we know them today.” Precautions intended to combat would-be bombers and other threats, he added, could not prevent commando-style raids by heavily armed criminals. “This involves much more than an aviation security problem.”

The robbery also signaled how vulnerable sprawling airport complexes can still be despite a steady tightening of security measures since the attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Most of these have been aimed at screening passengers inside the terminal buildings, not at securing the tarmac outside.

“This will give everyone a cold shower, everyone from the Homeland Security Department in the U.S. to the airline transport industry and insurance companies worldwide,” said John Shaw of SW Associates, a risk management company in Paris. “You have to rethink the whole game — how to approach security on a large static target like an airport.”

The robbery has also rattled Antwerp’s diamond industry at a time when the city, a diamond trading and cutting hub for centuries, is struggling to fend off a challenge from low-wage diamond cutters in India and elsewhere.

“The fact that this happened is a big problem for us. We have our No. 1 position to defend. Security is obviously very important,” said Ms. De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. “We are shocked by the fact this could ever happen. We are all wondering, ‘How is this possible?’ ”

Diamonds traded in Antwerp last year, she said, had a total value of $51.9 billion, accounting for 80 percent of the world’s rough diamond trade and 50 percent of trade in polished gems. Ms. De Wolf said Monday’s robbery was the biggest she could recall.

Helvetic Airways, an independent Swiss airline that operated the plane hit by the robbery, said security for valuable cargo is normally the responsibility of the airport and the security company hired to transport valuable cargo to the plane. The airline’s spokesman in Zurich declined to comment further.

Diamonds bought in Antwerp for either cutting or sale abroad are usually taken to Brussels Airport, about 25 miles away, under police escort in armored security vans hired from Brinks and other companies. “We take security very seriously,” Ms. De Wolf said. “We are all in shock.”

Maybe next time they'll strike De Beers.

[ironbite]

....FUCK!

Ironbite-now I gotta get ready for another round of "Ok so how do we turn the baggage handlers into security personal" procedures

[Witchyjoshy]

...Why do I feel that this is refreshing?

Damn the romanticist in me.

Either way, this ought to be interesting.

[Sylvana]

Interesting story.
I don't think this so much outlines a flaw in airport security so much as how well prepared and informed the criminals were. This kind of precision and planning would be able to steal just about anything from anywhere. Whenever something valuable is moved there are softer spots in the security than normally and knowing how to capitalize on that at the best time is what made these criminals stand out.

[Distind]

You'd think they'd do some special secure charter joby for 50 fucking million in diamonds.

[chitoryu12]

You'd think they'd do some special secure charter joby for 50 fucking million in diamonds.

As long as the thieves know about it, they could probably do it. It's hard to adequately defend against several men with AKs without turning a bloodless heist into a roaring gunfight near an airliner loaded with civilians. All it takes is one greedy guard to tell his friends in return for a share.

[Distind]

You'd think they'd do some special secure charter joby for 50 fucking million in diamonds.

As long as the thieves know about it, they could probably do it. It's hard to adequately defend against several men with AKs without turning a bloodless heist into a roaring gunfight near an airliner loaded with civilians. All it takes is one greedy guard to tell his friends in return for a share.

Bull,
Private air strip/hanger. Armored car waiting(this is 50 mil after all), unload diamonds directly into armored car. Get out.

Done right we're talking 5 minutes, no one anywhere close that shouldn't be and armed guards on site. If anyone does show up you have a very short list of suspects, rolling cover and clear fire lanes. We do things like this every single day around the world with cash totaling small fractions of this value.

The idiots behind transporting this had no security measures beyond hoping no one would know what was in the damn container. Honestly I'd claim this to be insurance fraud if they had any on the package. That or a case of someone to stupid to keep their wealth.

[Sylvana]

That or a case of someone to stupid to keep their wealth.

That is not entirely fair. I think the effort of the criminals should be recognized. After all, they essentially performed a non violent heist within a window of 18 minutes. While I agree that security was lacking, some kudos should go to the criminals for being pro-active enough to capitalize on it as effectively as they did.

[Distind]

I'm not going to discount the criminals being competent, I'm just saying when you're dealing with massive amounts of money or high value cargo you have to plan to deal with competent criminals. Otherwise they'll find out you didn't eventually.

[kefkaownsall]

reminds me of a heist where they were smart enough to smuggle gold but too dumb to make sure it wasn't fools gold

[chitoryu12]

You'd think they'd do some special secure charter joby for 50 fucking million in diamonds.

As long as the thieves know about it, they could probably do it. It's hard to adequately defend against several men with AKs without turning a bloodless heist into a roaring gunfight near an airliner loaded with civilians. All it takes is one greedy guard to tell his friends in return for a share.

Bull,
Private air strip/hanger. Armored car waiting(this is 50 mil after all), unload diamonds directly into armored car. Get out.

Done right we're talking 5 minutes, no one anywhere close that shouldn't be and armed guards on site. If anyone does show up you have a very short list of suspects, rolling cover and clear fire lanes. We do things like this every single day around the world with cash totaling small fractions of this value.

The idiots behind transporting this had no security measures beyond hoping no one would know what was in the damn container. Honestly I'd claim this to be insurance fraud if they had any on the package. That or a case of someone to stupid to keep their wealth.

Not bull. The professionalism of the heist ensures that they already knew exactly when and where the diamonds were being moved, and the fake police lights would allow them to get close to any transaction even if it was guarded by the government. As long as they had the information on the place and time, they could get there. It takes time to land and taxi a plane, after all. It's not like they'd have only 5 minutes to break through the fence, drive to the hanger, and get the goods. Element of surprise also helps, and they had weapons that could match or exceed the armed guards' equipment and probably the skills to use them.

Your argument hinges entirely on the possibility that not a single person involved who knew when and where the plane would be landing would have passed along information like in the real world event.

[ironbite]

Also Chitoryu?  Please don't post the entire story again.  We've got rules against that kinda thing round here...*spits on the ground and adjusts his cowboy hat*

Ironbite-don't ask...I went through the Wild West on my way here.

[mellenORL]

I am siding with Distind on this one. 50 million worth of cut diamonds is worth the extra expense of using a private jet from a private airport or private secured section of this airport in question, or even to use a helicopter directly from the roof of the shipment consolidation building (it was going to Switzerland from Belgium, within fuel range for most larger civvy helis). By using private aircraft from secureable private take off locations, armed security and video monitoring can be increased, and there is much less risk to civilians if armed security agents need to defend the shipment with gunfire. 

[Old Viking]

I love it when capers of this magnitude are successful. 

[Scotsgit]

I bet they have Ray Winstone in the film version.