The Crime Book

54

F

or hundreds of years, most

of the world’s rough

diamonds – worth many

billions of dollars – have passed

through Antwerp, Belgium, making

it the largest diamond district in

the world and a coveted target for

audacious burglars.

Great heists depend on great

planning. The 2003 break-in at the

Antwerp Diamond Centre was

years in the making and was not

dubbed “the perfect crime” without

good reason.

A life-long thief from Palermo,

Sicily, who specialized in charming

his victims, Leonardo Notarbartolo

posed as a diamond merchant and

rented an office in the Antwerp

Diamond Centre two years before

the robbery. This enabled him to

gain 24-hour access to the building,

with his own safe deposit box

located within the vault.

Without a trace

On the night of 16 February 2003,

Notarbartolo and a group of five

thieves known as “The School of

Turin” broke into the diamond

centre’s vault.

Despite nine different layers of

security, including cameras and

infrared heat and motion sensors,

the gang looted 123 of the vault’s

160 individual safe deposit boxes

without setting off any alarms or

leaving behind any signs of forced

entry. The staff at the diamond

centre did not even notice that a

robbery had been committed until

17 February. They also discovered

that the security camera tapes

were missing. After combing the

vault, investigators estimated that

the haul amounted to £60 million

in diamonds, other precious gems,

gold, and jewellery.

Antwerp’s reputation as a world

diamond centre is well founded, with

85 per cent of all rough diamonds

passing through the city and over $16

billion in cut diamonds sold each year.

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION

Antwerp Diamond Centre,

Belgium

THEME

Vault heist

BEFORE

18 March 1990 Tw o t h i e v e s

disguised as police officers

enter the Isabella Stewart

Gardner Museum in Boston,

Massachusetts, trick security

officers, and steal 13 priceless

works of art.

AFTER

18 February 2013 Eight

masked gunmen posing as

police officers steal £33 million

in diamonds from an armoured

van on the tarmac of Brussels

Airport, Belgium.

IT WAS THE

PERFECT CRIME

THE ANTWERP DIAMOND HEIST,

15–16 FEBRUARY 2003

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55

See also: The Société Générale Bank Heist 44 ■ The Hatton Garden Heist 58–59

The unfinished sandwich

Everything had gone like clockwork

for the gang, but they became

sloppy during their escape. One

gang member, known as “Speedy”

(later identified by police as Pietro

Tavano), hastily discarded a bag of

trash in a forest alongside the E19

motorway north of Brussels.

A local farmer found the bag

and called the police after noticing

envelopes from the Antwerp

Diamond Centre, a videotape, and a

half-eaten salami sandwich, which

was later discovered to contain

traces of Notarbartolo’s DNA.

Notarbartolo was subsequently

arrested, along with three

accomplices including Speedy,

for committing what the press had

labelled “the heist of the century.”

Police searched Notarbartolo’s

apartment and discovered 17

diamonds in his home safe, which

they traced back to the vault. More

diamonds were found hidden in

a rolled-up carpet. In 2005,

Notarbartolo was sentenced to

10 years; his fellow conspirators

were jailed for five years each.

BANDITS, ROBBERS, AND ARSONISTS

Missing puzzle pieces

Notarbartolo claimed in a 2009

interview with Wired magazine

that a diamond merchant hired The

School of Turin for the heist, and

that the robbery was part of

a complex insurance fraud.

Authorities doubted this claim,

however, and did not pursue it.

What is beyond doubt, though,

is that except for a few stones, the

loot has never been found. The fifth

member of the gang, nicknamed

the “King of Keys”, has also not yet

been identified. ■

The Diamond Squad

In 2000, the Belgian Ministry

of Justice established a

special police force to guard

and investigate crimes taking

place in Antwerp’s diamond

district. This unique six-

member police force is led by

inspectors who are uniquely

well connected with the

diamond business. The head

of the “Diamond Squad”,

Agim De Bruycker, was in

charge of the investigation

into the Antwerp Diamond

Heist that secured

Notarbartolo’s arrest.

However, in March 2015,

De Bruycker was arrested on

suspicion of money laundering.

Diamonds worth £365,000

were later discovered in his

home. Members of his team

had allegedly become

suspicious after he purchased

an expensive villa and a new

Range Rover shortly after

his divorce was finalized.

De Bruycker was consequently

suspended pending an

investigation.

De Bruycker’s arrest is not

the only scandal to befall the

diamond squad. In 2004,

€1.6 million (over £1 million)

worth of diamonds, seized as

part of a fraud investigation,

vanished from police custody.

They have not been recovered.

I may be a thief and a liar

but I am going to tell you

a true story.

Leonardo Notarbartolo

Combination

dial

Keyed lock

Locked steel

gate

External

security

camera

Magnetic

sensor

Light sensor

Keypad for

disarming

sensors

Internal security

camera

Heat/motion

sensor

The nine security layers at the Antwerp vault

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