31 people held over Brussels airport diamond heist

Thirty-one people were arrested in three countries this morning in dawn raids, more than two months after a diamond heist at Brussels airport, it was reported. In Belgium alone, about 200 police officers searched 40 flats, mostly in Brussels, and recovered some of the haul, according to the Sudpresse newspapers. Eight men broke through a fence at Brussels’ Zaventem airport on February 18 and snatched an estimated 120 parcels from a diamond shipment that was being loaded from a Brink’s security truck on to a Switzerland-bound plane. Antwerp World Diamond Centre estimated the value of the gems at US$50 million, approximately €37.4 million.

(AP – SAPA – DPA)