GBP300 million!

Armed Robbers In £300m Belgium Diamond Heist

Multi-Million Diamond Heist at Brussels Airport - ABC News
Armed robbers in $467 million diamond heist at Brussels airport - World News
BRUSSELS: 8 armed men in diamond heist at Brussels airport - World Wires - MiamiHerald.com
Robbers steal diamonds worth '£300m' in daring raid on Brussels airport - Europe - World - The Independent
Armed gang in airport diamonds raid - Independent.ie
Giant diamond heist at Brussels airport: prosecutors | My Sinchew
Cookies must be enabled. | The Australian

etc...

I think they made an error somewhere. The load was presumably 10 kilograms (22 lbs) of diamonds which equals about 50.000 carats. Now if it was cut diamonds then this should indeed be worth about 350 million EUR, however they were uncut, rough diamonds and thus far more less valuable then cut diamonds. However, since they are uncut, rough diamonds they are virtually untraceable and thus easy to sell.

At this point it is said that the value of the heist is estimated at 50 million (some say USD, others say EUR) which is still a very significant amount of money...

Yeah, but look: The guys who broke in weren't carrying any yoghurts or liquids that were more than 100ml, so what's the problem?

Does it count as lost baggage ??
If so the airline liability for the loss will be minimal under the various
Conventions & Protocols the Airlines conveniently negotiate for their fee paying passengers

Baggage is something a person checks in, this was high value cargo loaded on a scheduled flight.

The press conference didn't bring much new things to light:

- 2 cars drove onto the tarmac through the fence (cars were equiped with blue lights)
- 4 armed robbers per car
- Armed robbers where wearing uniforms similar to police uniforms
- Security personnel, pilot, co-pilot, red cap held at gun point during robbery
- 120 packages full of diamonds were taken
- Estimated value yet unknown
- 1 of the cars was found burning moments later
- Big police alert issued after the robbery, investigation ongoing

LGW - BBC now on the case!

BBC News - 'Gigantic' Brussels Airport diamond heist

Probably used a random number generator for the amount of dosh ;)

And surely insured as such (high value cargo, that is!), though after such a big security fiasco insurance premiums are definitely going to skyrocket! :}

wow 10 kg of diamonds thats a lot of grey boxes .use to do a flight a manchester once every 3 months that use to have 3kg of dimonds and 500kg gold bars . amazing how heavey a little wooden box with 10 gold bars in it is and a pain in the arse to move


:ok:

Know of an airport that once listed a shipment of Intel processors as "Short Shipped" even though arrived just over a ton, christ knows how much that would be worth.

Also the famous story of a certain airline's staff room being held open with a dusty gold ingot as a doorstop.

This story nicely illustrates the true value of aviation 'security'.


Embuggerence value? Huge.

Security value? Negligable.

Deterrence value to determined people? Less than zero.

If I recall correctly this actually happened before in BRU years ago. It was either diamonds or gold that was being transported across the airport. It departed one side of the airport but never arrived on the other end. Far as I know this was never solved.

It happened quite a few time in BRU, in 1982, 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2005. Either diamonds, gold or other valuables where stolen then. The biggest heist in Belgium however happened off airport in the diamont center of Antwerp where 100 million EUR (official number, unofficially much higher) mostly in diamonds were stolen in 2003.

It was reported that this heist had a value of 50 million EUR but apparently they came back to this number and are now saying that they don't know the value of the heist. Thus it can be much lower but also much higher. The official version is that 120 packages of diamonds were stolen during the heist.

Huh!!! Teenage scribblers at work?
 

Spelling police having a sleep at the Sky website.....

"cut a whole in a perimeter fence"

No way this wasn't an inside job! Who else would have access to the manifest?

This type of heist is always an inside job. Who would go to the trouble of putting together an armed commando and taking a huge risk (or maybe not, as no shots at all were actually fired from the other side :}) by forcefully penetrating a secure area, only to most likely find the hold filled with common, worthless luggage? Lots of people employed in security firms who would gladly sell out for just a (relatively) small chunk out of a 50million+ loot.

The value is probably based on estimated potential maximum, a good game to allow journalists unlimited scope for guesswork and speculation.

There was a similar heist at JNB in 2006, from an SAA aircraft about to depart for London.

Antwerp and Amsterdam
 

What I am curious about is who will buy the uncut diamonds and where will they be cut?

The above places close by but the trade is tightly controlled by DeBeers/oppenheimers and other notable folks. Antwerp has its fair share of crooks and the Jewish community has its black sheep as do the rest of us but would have thought it too obvious.

Are the stones off to India or somewhere similar where there are decent cutters and a big market for sparkly glass?

Back in the 1990s was FO on a BA 75 that flew half a tonne of gold from Toronto to JFK the armoured car which delivered it also followed us out towards the runway...

Tel Aviv, New York also diamond cutting centres.