Robbers snatch $50 million of diamonds off Belgium plane

[NY8123]

Striaght up Hollywood movie **** right here boys! Awesome.

Robbers snatch $50 million of diamonds off Belgium plane

Eight armed and masked men made a hole in a security fence at the international airport in Brussels, Belgium, drove onto the tarmac and snatched millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday.

The gang used two vehicles in their daring raid Monday, dragged the cache of stones and sped off into the darkness, said Anja Bijnens, spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor's office.
Police found a burnt-out vehicle close to the airport later Monday night and said they were still looking for clues.

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[Vaark]

Was just watching a BIO mob biography of Jimmy The Gent Burke (played by DiNiro in Goodfellas) including how he organized the then largest Lufthansa heist ever to that point. With those many players involved it got sloppy and he went about systematically eliminating most of them.

That is always a concern I'm sure unless they're all family, and that $50 Million number is both retail and insurance-inflated. I'd be surprised if they end up with more than a few mil after fencing them at their wholesale value.

[NY8123]

Was just watching a BIO mob biography of Jimmy The Gent Burke (played by DiNiro in Goodfellas) including how he organized the then largest Lufthansa heist ever to that point. With those many players involved it got sloppy and he went about systematically eliminating most of them.

That is always a concern I'm sure unless they're all family, and that $50 Million number is both retail and insurance-inflated. I'd be surprised if they end up with more than a few mil after fencing them at their wholesale value.

I watched the same Bio. it was on the History Channel if I'm not mistaken. Yeah the diamond prices might be inflated but it might also be underestimated, sometimes with clients of this nature the price and the actual items being shipped are kept quiet for insurance purposes, so there may have very well been one specific goal here at play. You never know what the true intent was, it might be something as simple as money or it might be some real deep seeded ****.

I guess the romantic in me likes to think the latter is true in this case, I want a good movie to watch in several years lol.

[TheWalrus]

Was just watching a BIO mob biography of Jimmy The Gent Burke (played by DiNiro in Goodfellas) including how he organized the then largest Lufthansa heist ever to that point. With those many players involved it got sloppy and he went about systematically eliminating most of them.

That is always a concern I'm sure unless they're all family, and that $50 Million number is both retail and insurance-inflated. I'd be surprised if they end up with more than a few mil after fencing them at their wholesale value.

This guy was my first thought, also. Always had an inside man, Jimmy, a man who was often later killed. This reeks of at least a partly inside job, as well. Diamonds are notoriously hard to fence, given their identifying features and the difficultly in finding someone good enough to modify them who's also something less than a straight arrow. You have to have that all worked out ahead of time, and be willing to wait for the whole process to play itself out, which can take months or longer.

A lot of the time these guys on the inside do it because they have desperate money problems, which doesn't jibe with a diamond heist because of the lag time in getting paid off. If you work something out ahead of time or just after that's a flag for the police, and if they're willing to wait then what was the motivation?

[NY8123]

This guy was my first thought, also. Always had an inside man, Jimmy, a man who was often later killed. This reeks of at least a partly inside job, as well. Diamonds are notoriously hard to fence, given their identifying features and the difficultly in finding someone good enough to modify them who's also something less than a straight arrow. You have to have that all worked out ahead of time, and be willing to wait for the whole process to play itself out, which can take months or longer.

A lot of the time these guys on the inside do it because they have desperate money problems, which doesn't jibe with a diamond heist because of the lag time in getting paid off. If you work something out ahead of time or just after that's a flag for the police, and if they're willing to wait then what was the motivation?

Oh you're right there was someone on the inside who got paid or to be honest it isn't out of the realm of possibility that the person who owns the diamonds or someone close to them pulled it off. The earlier report was 465m in diamonds which was later changed to 50, so I ask myself which was right? I'd be willing to bet we don't know the real value of the diamonds and that it was larger than 50m.

It is also realistic to surmise that if someone with the right connections pulled it off, they could benefit two fold, once on the insurance claim and again after re-purposing the diamonds for resale. This wasn't your average "stick em up" robbery, this was your high end, well planned out made for the movies robbery lol.

Not surpisingly here is some better info out of Reuters:
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[Bumpus]

Was just watching a BIO mob biography of Jimmy The Gent Burke (played by DiNiro in Goodfellas) including how he organized the then largest Lufthansa heist ever to that point. With those many players involved it got sloppy and he went about systematically eliminating most of them.

That is always a concern I'm sure unless they're all family, and that $50 Million number is both retail and insurance-inflated. I'd be surprised if they end up with more than a few mil after fencing them at their wholesale value.

I'll let you know when I get my cut.

[NY8123]

More info that make you go hummmmm............


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