items in the Jewel Room of the Green Vault museum in a heist
carried out early Monday. The burgled room is seen here in a photo
provided by the Dresden State Art Collections.David
Brandt/Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
German police on Tuesday arrested three suspects and
raided properties over a spectacular heist a year ago in which more
than a dozen diamond-encrusted items were snatched from a state
museum in Dresden.
Investigators were searching 18 properties in Berlin, including
10 apartments as well as garages and vehicles, in connection to
what local media had dubbed the biggest art heist in modern
history.
“The measures today are focused on the search for the stolen art
treasures and possible evidence, such as data storage media,
clothing and tools,” police and prosecutors said in a
statement.
The robbers had launched their brazen raid on Green Vault museum
in Dresden’s Royal Palace on November 25, 2019.
Having initiated a partial power cut and broken in through a
window, they had snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery from the
collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.
Items stolen included a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine
large and 770 smaller diamonds and a shoulder piece which contains
the famous 49-carat Dresden white diamond, Dresden’s Royal Palace
had said.
Vault” museum in Dresden, Germany, include (from left) the breast
star of the Polish Order of the White Eagle, a hat clasp containing
a 16-carat diamond and a diamond-studded sword hilt with a matching
scabbard.
The director of Dresden’s state art collection, Marion
Ackermann, had refused to put a value on the stolen items, calling
them “priceless”.
Dramatic CCTV footage released at that time showed one of the
robbers breaking into a display case with an axe.
Police hunting for the suspects had launched several appeals,
offering up to half a million euros in reward for information
leading to their arrests.
On Tuesday, around 1,600 officers were deployed in the raids and
arrests, with special reinforcements called in from across the
country to help in what was code-named Special Commission Epaulette
— after one of the stolen precious pieces.
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Police did not name the three arrested, but said they are German
citizens.
All three are accused of “serious gang robbery and two counts of
arson,” said Dresden prosecutors.
100-kg gold coin
Germany’s best-selling daily Bild said several of the addresses
raided in Berlin on Tuesday were linked to a family of Arab origin
notorious for ties to organised crime.
The so-called “Remmo clan” had been implicated in another
high-profile museum robbery in the heart of Berlin in which a
100-kilogramme (220-pound) gold coin was stolen.
Two out of three of the suspects convicted in February in that
case belonged to the family.
Police have found no trace of the Canadian coin since the
late-night heist in March 2017 from the Bode Museum, located close
to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Berlin apartment.
The “Big Maple Leaf”, one of five minted in 2007, is considered
the world’s second-largest gold coin after the one-tonne Australian
Kangaroo issued in 2012.
Investigators probing the Dresden break-in had said they were
examining links to the gold coin robbery.
In recent years, so-called “clans” of primarily Middle Eastern
origin have become a particular focus for police in Berlin.
Investigators last year targeted the Remmos with the seizure of
77 properties worth a total of 9.3 million euros, charging that
they were purchased with the proceeds of various crimes, including
a 2014 bank robbery.
In another huge heist this month, robbers hit a German customs
office, making off with 6.5 million euros ($7.7 million) in
cash.
Investigators said they drilled through a basement cellar
through to the vault, snatching bags of cash.
Police have offered 100,000 euros in reward for information
leading to the arrest and/or conviction of the suspects.
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/11/17/three-arrested-over-spectacular-dresden-museum-jewellry-heist/