Valencia arrests 12 years after Dutch airport multi-million diamond robbery
Sunday, January 22, 2017 @ 7:29 PM
SEVEN people have been arrested in Valencia 12 years on from the biggest diamond heist of the century, worth €67 million.
An armed robbery on February 25, 2005 at Amsterdam's Schipol airport on a blacked-out and armour-plated vehicle belonging to the Dutch national airline KLM took place on a maximum-security runway, and led to a haul of diamonds worth US$72m being seized by a masked gang.
The diamonds had been on their way to nearby Amberes for sale in jewellers' shops.
Part of the stash was later recovered in a getaway car, but the remainder, worth about US$43m (€40m) was never found.
It was described as the largest diamond robbery in history, and sparked widespread criticism about security levels at Schipol, given that an armed gang had managed to enter an area only accessible to employees with a special pass.
Initially, seven suspects were arrested, but released after a court was unable to find evidence to incriminate them, and the case was closed in 2006 due to an absence of clues leading to the culprits.
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