Big Diamond theft - a Hollywood movie in the making - right now

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Richard Pauli <rpauli () speakeasy org>
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 20:10:52 -0800
To: dave () farber net, dfarber () earthlink net
Subject: Big Diamond theft - a Hollywood movie in the making - right now

Dave Farber,

Maybe someone on your list will help understand this:

It amazes me that possibly the largest diamond theft of all time last week
has been so under reported.  It happened on Monday - the freshest news I
can find is from the 19th.  It was huge. Stones were left on the
floor.  Possibly a large team working fast to break into 123 of the 160
vaults in the Antwerp Diamond Center.

"Antwerp is the world's leading diamond centre, with some 80 per cent of
the globe's diamonds passing through. Rival centres include New York and
Tel Aviv."

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=209382003

http://www.diamonds.net/news/newsitem.asp?num=7802&type=all&topic=all

http://www.web.net/~pac/pacnet-l/msg00015.html

I have heard so little since then.  The news vacuum on any follow-up really
invites speculation. Avoiding cameras, this was a very organized and high
tech theft.  Antwerp is the center for much of the illegitimate diamond
laundering, it could have been put together by an African smuggling
organization.  Or al-Qaeda - always an easy scapegoat -  and the BBC has a
nice article about them  "estimated that al-Qaeda laundered $20m through
purchasing diamonds."  But they don't point any fingers on the theft
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2775763.stm

Or Mosaad. Mosaad is plausible because of Belgium/Israeli tension right
now   A Brussels court is allowing a war crimes lawsuit against Israel's
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon.  So great is the dispute that Israel recalled
their Belgian ambassador (but saying it "has nothing to do with the
theft")   Could Sharon have the stones to pull this one off?    I am trying
to find out the timing of these events.  A huge diamond heist certainly
would be quite a message to Belgium

This is going to be a great story when it comes out.

Again - a great news story - not much in facts.  Why have we heard so
little about it?

(Found a little follow up out of Singapore
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,172832,00.html)

  Anyone got any news?


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