Diamond thieves were after cash, not gems

The perpetrators of the diamond robbery at Brussels airport in February were after money, Het Nieuwsblad reports. “They found themselves with €37 million worth of diamonds on their hands and did not know what to do with it,” investigators say. A week before the heist, large quantities of cash were loaded on to the same Zurich-bound plane. The thieves decided to strike a week later, not knowing that gems and not cash would be loaded on to the plane then. “If the perpetrators had stolen money, the chances are that we would still be looking for them,” investigators explain. “But they had to deal with loot which they were unfamiliar with. Their search for buyers led to their downfall.”