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Police in Germany have just arrested three people suspected of being involved in one of the biggest robberies in recent years: jewelry from a museum in Dresden worth a total of one billion euros.
The detainees are German citizens and authorities say they belong to the “Berlin clan network”. But let’s give some background.
On November 25, 2019, unknown perpetrators (as of yesterday at least) actually decided to commit a robbery on a scale worthy of a Hollywood box office production.
It is the Grünes Gewölbe (“Green Vault”) Museum in Dresden, one of the oldest in Europe, founded in 1723 by the Saxon king August II.
They have just stolen royal jewels worth a total of one billion euros. Among them is a 49-carat white diamond, as well as all kinds of important items, decorated with several times as many diamonds and precious stones, which are not accidentally of such high value.
Of course, they are also important for the cultural heritage of Saxony, which only adds fuel to the research fire.
But what is known about that night a year ago?
At 4 am on November 25, a small fire broke out in the nearby Puente de Agosto, destroying an electrical box. As a result, street lights and security alarms in the museum have been disabled, but video surveillance continues to work, writes Deutsche Welle.
After this happens, the thieves cut the iron bars around the building’s window, which leads to the museum’s jewelery room. According to police reports, those who sneaked in were “extremely small” because the hole was quite narrow.
Security camera footage shows that there were two thieves in the vaults and they broke the glass windows with an ax to reach the jewels.
They stole a total of three 18th century games, but in a panic they dropped some of them. Eventually, the perpetrators went out the same window and then even returned the bars to slow down the chase a bit.
The guards arrived at the scene at 4:56 am, but since they were unarmed, they notified the police and followed security protocol.
Meanwhile, authorities said that after careful examination of the camera footage, they found that at least seven people were involved in the theft.
The police also released a sketch of one of the perpetrators, believed to be in his mid-25s:
Investigators also said they were able to determine the make and model of the car the group fled in: the Audi A6. It was sold to an unknown buyer last August in Magdeburg, another East German city, by a man who authorities say is involved in the crime.
The car was probably repainted before the theft, which shows that the theft was planned well in advance. It was later established that he had been set on fire in a garage in Dresden.
Police have offered a reward of 500,000 euros ($ 557,000) for information leading to the restoration of jewelry or the arrest of the perpetrators.
And so we come to today, when three suspects have been arrested.
The large-scale investigation corresponds to the robbery itself: 18 properties, garages and vehicles were raided in the police operation, with a particular focus on the Berlin district of Neukölln.
It involved more than 1,600 police officers from across Germany and the operation was able to stop traffic throughout the city.
Meanwhile, the theft is linked to another equally ambitious case: the theft of a 100 kilogram gold coin taken from the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017. It was estimated at approximately 3.8 million euros.
Eventually, the perpetrators were caught and it turned out that even a security guard who had just been hired at the museum and who assisted in the scheme was involved in the robbery.
Both crimes are related to the so-called “clan crime” in Germany, which was warned in December by the president of the German Federal Criminal Service, Holger Munch.
They are made up mainly of migrants who have arrived in Germany in recent years from Syria and Iraq, and experts say that strong clashes between the old established clans and the new criminal groups are possible in the future, even because some of the newcomers have real combat experience.
However, no further information was reported about the perpetrators, other than that they were German nationals.
