The entire European continent has gone into manhunt mode, after an audacious diamond robbery at a Brussels airport has led to 31 arrests in three different countries.
A group of eight masked, armed individuals robbed a plane bound for India via Zurich carrying 121 packets of uncut diamonds, worth around $42 million (32 million euro).
They carried out this endeavor with alacrity and finesse on the evening of February 18. According to The Guardian, it appears the suspects had in-depth, insider knowledge about the flight and its pricey contents.
The uncut diamonds were being loaded into the belly of a Helvetica Airways plane from a Brinks security van as the carrier prepared for takeoff, when the gang of eight stormed the tarmac.
The robbers gained access to the runway by cutting the fence surrounding the perimeter, and also by way of a gate nearby.
Driving two black vehicles outfitted with blue police lights, the eight stopped the plane from taxiing, held up the Brinks staff at gunpoint, opened the luggage hold and drove off with the packets of precious stones.
The robbery took a total of 15 minutes. No shots were fired.
Police found one of the getaway cars driven in the heist, a stolen Mercedes taxi, burnt out and abandoned. The other car, an Audi, had a license plate from France.
Belgian police told the Guardian that 24 suspects were arrested in Belgium, six in Switzerland and one in France. The Belgian suspects are known to police as criminals of the Belgian underworld, while the license number offered the possibility of a French resident involved in the robbery.
"At least 10 of the men arrested in Belgium were known to the justice authorities, mainly for armed attacks," Brussels police spokesperson Jean-Marc Meilleur told the press. "They were part of the Brussels criminal milieu. We're assuming that the man arrested in France is one of the perpetrators of the attack."
The diamonds were being transported from Antwerp, one of the diamond trading capitals of the world, a mere half an hour's drive away.
Because the stones were mainly uncut, they held no certification, which made it difficult for authorities to trace them.
Details on how police recovered the diamonds have not been released.
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