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Crime & heists
15 February 2003 – 16 February 2003 · Antwerp Diamond Centre, Antwerp
Robberies & burglariesStatus: Partly solved
Image: Thorsten1997 · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
> $ 100 mlnin diamonds, gold and jewellery; never recovered
A large share of the world's trade in rough diamonds passes through Antwerp's diamond district. The vault of the Antwerp Diamond Centre lay two floors below ground and was considered almost impregnable, with among other things a combination lock, a magnetic alarm, heat and motion sensors and cameras. From 2000 Leonardo Notarbartolo rented an office and a deposit box there, posing as a diamond dealer.
Over the weekend of 15 and 16 February 2003 the group entered the building. The sensors had been disabled beforehand, among other things by coating the heat sensor with hairspray, and the magnetic alarm was bypassed by detaching the magnetic plates together. Inside the vault the thieves broke open more than a hundred boxes. On Monday morning the managers found the vault open, the floor strewn with loot left behind.
The breakthrough came from rubbish: beside the E19 motorway a landowner found bags containing, among other things, empty diamond envelopes, a videotape and a half-eaten sandwich. Through a till receipt and DNA the trail led to Notarbartolo, who was arrested a few days later when he returned to his office. He and three others were convicted in 2005; a fifth suspect has never been identified.
Notarbartolo was sentenced to ten years and released on parole in 2009. The loot has not been recovered, and the estimate of its value rests on statements from the victims, some of whom did not report their losses. In an interview Notarbartolo later claimed the theft had been set up as insurance fraud, but no evidence for this has been found. Security in the diamond district was tightened drastically after the theft.