Investigators believe an important clue has been found that may help recover the glittering haul from the world’s largest diamond robbery, reported The Sunday Times.
Up to £350m in diamonds, cash and other valuables were stolen seven years ago from the Antwerp Diamond Centre in Belgium. Four gang members were jailed at the time but the diamonds have still not been found.
The raid has been reconstructed in a new book, Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History, by Scott Andrew Selby and Greg Campbell.
Diamond robbery planned for 2 years
The Centre’s vault is said to be the safest in the world with camera protection, a 24-hour guard, light, motion and infrared heat sensors, and 12-in thick steel doors. The authors claim the diamond robbery was planned for more than two years with a gang member posing as a diamond merchant and becoming a tenant in an office block above the vault.
The safe deposit boxes were kept in a safe room two floors underground locked with a key and three-letter ocde only known by the owners. The book claims the vault’s motion detector was disabled with hair spray. Polystyrene and electrical tape fooled other sensros. A giant corkscrew-like tool opened 109 of the 189 deposit boxes. One contained 140 diamonds and another 120 large rough diamonds.
Campbell told The Sunday Times: “The thieves were incredibly ingenious but also took advantage of human error. The vault door required both a combination code and key — the key was left in a storeroom just a few feet away.”
Co-author, Selby believes most of the diamonds will never be found. He said: “Anyone walking in the street could be wearing one of the diamonds. Polished diamonds are very hard to trace, and in Antwerp they can change hands several times a day.”
