World

British Diamond Heist Foiled

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 7, 2000 / 1:29 PM EST / CBS

Call it the "Diamonds at the Dome" caper, reports CBS News Correspondent Sam Litzinger: British police foiled an elaborate plot to steal hundreds of millions of dollars worth of diamonds from a display at London's Millennium Dome Tuesday in what they said would have been the world's biggest robbery.

Litzinger reports police say they'd been trailing the gang for some time. There are reports the members were planning to use earthmoving equipment to break into the Dome.

AP Photo

The Millennium Diamond

Scotland Yard police headquarters said 11 people had been arrested following the attempted heist — which would have netted some $500 million — in a police operation that took months to plan.

With robbers disguised as workmen, Flying Squad officers disguised as janitors and a powerboat waiting on the River Thames outside as a getaway, the audacious bid had all the makings of an action movie plot.

The robbers' plan may even have been inspired by the latest James Bond movie The World is Not Enough, which featured a speedboat chase to the Dome in the opening sequence.

Once You Steal It,
Then What?
The thieves who tried to steal a flawless 203-carat (40-gram or two-ounce) diamond the size of an egg from a display at London's Millennium Dome on Tuesday might have found the gem was not suitable for any market.

Experts at Belgium's Diamond High Council in Antwerp, the world's largest diamond-trading centre, said that unless the thieves had a wealthy individual willing to buy the stone strictly for his own pleasure, it would have been unsellable.

"The diamond is unique and immediately recognizable. There's no way to hold it for a few years and then sell it," Youri Stevelynck, spokesman for the Diamond Council, told Reuters.

"It would be like going to the Louvre and stealing the 'Mona Lisa,'" he said. "Either they actually had a buyer for it or...they are not really very abreast of the diamond market. But people who do something like that must be professionals."

"It's so hard to say what it's worth," said Stevelynck.

An fficial at the Diamond Council's certification department, which assesses the cut, clarity, color and size of diamonds, noted that the value of gems rises exponentially with size due to the increasing rarity.

Although thieves could have found a market for the Millennium Star diamond by cutting it into smaller stones, its value would have been greatly diminished, the expert said.

"Even if you cut it in two, the sum of the two stones wouldn't be worth anywhere near the value of the whole."

Stevelynck said that even in the legal market there are very few buyers for diamonds as rare as the Millennium Star.

"There are some very rich people who collect this kind of thing. Or very large jewelers, the Tiffany's, the Cartiers, might be interested just to say, 'Look at what I have.' "

(Source: Reuters Ltd.)

Lying in wait for the thieves, police allowed the gang to punch through the side of the Dome and into the vault holding the diamonds with a heavy earth-moving vehicle. Officers directed 64 visitors already in the Dome away from the trouble.

Police only discarded their garbage bags and grabbed their guns to arrest four of the suspects — all of whom are believed to be British — after they had smashed through the glass case protecting the diamonds with sledge hammers and nailguns.

The vault holds the South African diamond miner De Beers' display of rare stones including a huge diamond described by experts as priceless.

"When they entered the vault they imprisoned themselves for us," Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford, who led the 100-man operation, told a news conference. "Had we arrested them beforehand we would have increased the threat to the public."

"If this robbery had been carried out...this would have been the largest robbery in the world," Shatford added, saying Tuesday was just one of 24 dates police had expected the robbery attempt to take place.

Dressed in gas masks and body armor, the robbers also used smoke bombs in a vain bid to hide from police but it was unclear whether they were armed with guns.

One of the gang was caught in the getaway speedboat, one was arrested on the side of the Thames and five more were held in raids outside London. Police hinted there could be more arrests, saying the operation was still going on.

The prize the robbers were striving for was a huge, flawless 203-carat pear-shaped diamond dubbed the Millennium Star — one of the world's largest gems.

It is surrounded by 11 other unique blue diamonds. But De Beers said its display had been unscathed.

The company declined to comment on media reports that in liaison with the police it had replaced the gems with replicas Monday to protect them.

"They didn't manage to remove the diamonds from the stand. There was major security there," De Beers spokesman Andy Bone said. "We knew that the (suspects) were going to dthis."

Dome chief executive Pierre-Yves Gerbeau was simply relieved the operation was over without any injuries.

"I had known (about the operation) for some time. I was very worried," Gerbeau told reporters.

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