31 people in 3 countries detained in Belgium airport diamond heist
Baggage carts make their way past a Helvetic Airways aircraft from which millions' of dollars worth of diamonds were stolen on the tarmac of Brussels international airport, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. (AP / Yves Logghe)
The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, May 8, 2013 6:10AM EDT
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Police carried out raids and detained 31 people in three countries in connection with a spectacular $50 million diamond heist pulled off with apparent clockwork precision at Brussels Airport, a Belgian prosecutor said Wednesday.
One person was detained in France, six in Switzerland and 24 in Belgium in connection with the Feb. 19 robbery, prosecutor Anja Bijnens said at a news conference in Brussels.
In addition, money and diamonds connected with the heist have been recovered -- the money in Belgium and the diamonds in Switzerland -- Bijnens said. She did not specify the amounts.
The diamonds had been loaded on a plane bound for Zurich when robbers, dressed in dark police clothing and hoods, drove through a hole they had cut in the airport fence in two black cars with blue police lights flashing.
They drove onto the tarmac, approached the plane, brandished machine-guns, offloaded the diamonds, then made what seemed at the time to be a clean getaway.
At the time, Bijnens estimated that the entire operation took five minutes.
