New arrest in Brussels diamond heist

The Brussels prosecutor’s office has confirmed a new arrest relating to the massive diamond robbery that took place on the tarmac of Brussels Airport in February last year.

The robbery took place when two vehicles carrying eight armed men in police uniforms gained access to the airport (pictured) through an adjoining construction site and held up a Swiss airlines flight getting ready to take off for Zurich. They made off with 121 bags containing uncut diamonds worth an estimated €37 million. The robbery took only five minutes and no one was hurt. One of the vehicles was later found burned out in Zellik, Flemish Brabant.

In May police in various locations arrested 31 people in connection with the raid, four of whom remain in custody. The man thought to be the brains behind the operation, Frenchman Marc Bertoldi, was released on bail last month. No trace of the stolen diamonds has been found, and investigators have speculated that the men were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found. 

The latest suspect is a 43-year-old man identified only as Nordine A. He was arrested on 13 December but released after questioning and after giving a DNA sample. He was arrested a second time on 23 December and formally imprisoned the next day, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor would not confirm that the arrest was related to DNA evidence found at the scene of the robbery. 

Photo: Lucash-Wikimedia Commons