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Missing diamondsBiggest theft in Belgium has four behind bars, but no traceAP pilot uIn this undated police handout photo, safety boxes, jewelry, money and diamonds, which thieves left behind, are displayed on the floor of a safe within the high-security vaults of Antwerp's Diamond Center.ANTWERP, Belgium - The thieves stood ankle-deep in a mess of diamonds, gold, jewelry, stocks, bonds, cash and lockboxes strewn on the vault room floor.After outwitting security in the world’s diamond cutting capital and prying open 123 vaults, they had one unexpected problem There was just too much loot to carryTwo weeks later, authorities are still trying to figure out how much the thieves actually did get away with. Their rough estimate is $100 million.That would easily make the Antwerp heist the largest safe-deposit box robbery ever - twice the 1976 hit in Beirut, Lebanon, when a guerrilla group blasted its way into the vaults of the British Bank of the Middle East and into the Guinness Book of Records.It would also beat the largest jewel theft on record, when machine gun toting thieves took $45 million in gems from the Carlton Hotel in Cannes on the French Riviera in 1994.So far, authorities have three Italians and a Dutch woman behind bars, but no clue where the loot is.The robbery has Belgians reaching for Hollywood metaphors Ocean’s Eleven,” the daily La Libre Belgique wrote Mission Very Impossible, says diamond dealer Marcel Fuehrer, one of the few whose vaults were spared.The suspected mastermind, 51 year old Leonardo Notarbartolo, and his wife, Adriana Crudo, 48, appeared before a magistrate Monday and denied any connection to the robbery They were ordered held for another twoweeks.investigators think the thieves started sizing up the formidable security challenges more than two years ago.Over half the worlds diamonds are traded in Antwerp’s gem district, a maze of tiny streets hugging the mam train station. Its turnover of $23 billion a year makes it one of the densest concentrations of valuables on earthJewish traders have plied their trade here lor five cen turies. Bearded men in broad black hats still predominate. but Indian dealers have also moved in to the many trading houses and glittering gem stores.Huge deals are sealed with a handshake The biggest part of the diamond trade is done with out a single piece of paper It is all based on trust, said Antwerp magistrate leen Nuyts.That trust, however, is reinforced by security - brief cases handcuffed to wrists, cameras filming the milling crowds from many angles, and a special police station and circles of steel pillars at both ends of the district.Two cameras cover the entrance to the Diamond Cen ter office bllt;xk where the heist took place Terrorism is also a reason for high security In 1981, a car bomb outside a synagogue in the heart of the dia mond district killed three people and injured more than 100 Since then the district has been considered Bel gium s best guarded neighborhood - until the heist was discovered Feb. 17 Investigators allege that the thieves beat the security simply by blending in.Antwerp’s director of judicial services, Eric Sack, said Notarbartolo, a dark haired Italian who looks younger than his years, rented an office in the Diamond Center in November 2000 under the name of a phantom company and slowly became part of the scenery. It did not matter that he had a criminal record in Italy “He was not known here,” said Nuyts.Dealers still can’t believe no one checked How is it possible that somebody could rent an officethere without proof that there is no criminal record? said Fuehrer, the diamond dealer. It was no simple supermarket he moved into.”Having an office in the drab concrete and glass build ing provided an intimate glimpse of how the dealers operate.'Out of habit and security, people went dow n to the cellar in the evening, and certainly for the weekend, to deposit their valuables there, said FuehrerThe vaults are two stories underground, reachable by elevator or the subterranean parking lot. Visitors pass cameras, bars and a 12-inch thick reinforced door to get to the individual vaults.Yet, the thieves’ plan was a piece of genius in its sim plicity,” said Sack.According to police, the thieves took their time to study the alarm systems and somehow obtained copies of the master keys to the vaults.Police are saying nothing about how the thieves got in, but in the week before the theft, investigators allege, Notarbartolo made several visits to the vaults, appar ently to make sure the cameras could be disabled. His last visit was Friday, w ithiri the hour before closing time.Then came the weekend of Feb. 15-16, when the dia mond district goes eerily quiet and the guards at the Diamond Center are reduced to a single person, said Nuyts, the magistrate, in an interview.All eyes were on the nearby Sports Palace, where U.S. tennis star Venus Williams was winning the Diamond Games and coming within one victory ol taking a $1 million diamond encrusted trophy racket for good.At the same time, the thieves were scooping up that kind of loot every few minutes at the Diamond Center.Sack, the judicial services chief, believes Italian leg men were brought in to do the actual tin tl I Ik v taped over the cameras and took compromising videotapes out of the surveillance system. Police say they aren’t yet sure how the thieves got into the cellar without damag ing the reinforced doors and why the taped over screenswere not noticed.They had enough time to break open vault after vault, grabbing so much loot that they left a lot behind.“When I entered the vault and saw everything strewn around, it was just incredible,” Fuehrer said. It was like a hallucinationIn fact after all the careful planning, the thieves were undone, authorities claim, because of a sloppy cleanup.rhey threw bags with compromising material into a ditch alongside the highway and by chance, police recov ered them almost immediately. The bags reportedly included letters referring to the Diamond Center, break in equipment and copied pass keys.The discovery pointed to Notarbartolo, Nuyts said. Police continued gathering evidence and meanwhile alerted guards at the Diamond Center. Investigators were convinced Notarbartolo had no due what awaited him.“He could not have thought we were so close on his heels, Sack said.When he showed up with his boyhood friend, Anto nio Faletti, a guard alerted police and Notarbartolo was arrested.Faletti ran away but police caught up with him at Notarbartolo’s apartment when he dragged out a rug containing incriminating material, said Nuyts. Their wives were inside and were also arrested.Nolarbartolo’s apartment had been pretty well cleaned out. But Nuyts said police found a stray diamond in a vacuum deaner bag.Faletti and his wife, Judith Zwiep, also denied any involvement through their lawyers, who said the two just happened to be visiting Notarbartolo when the police moved in. Their detention was extended last Friday.Now police are counting on close cooperation with the Italian carabinieri to recover the loot. They suspect many diamonds were especially chosen because they would he hard to trace.
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Anderson Herald Bulletin
Anderson, Indiana, US
Tue, Mar 04, 2003
Page 18
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University O.
TX, USA 28 Nov 2023
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