Six years ago, eight men dressed as police officers pulled off a spectacular heist on the tarmac of Brussels Airport. The masked bandits stole more than 100 packages of rough diamonds valued at EU€37 million (AU$50 million) as they were being loaded into a Helvetic Airways passenger plane.
The gang struck just minutes before the flight – bound for Zürich, Switzerland –was cleared for takeoff, arriving in two vehicles equipped with sirens and police-like markings.
Wearing masks and armed with automatic rifles, the robbers held staff at gunpoint before escaping by driving off through a hole in a security fence.
More than 20 suspects were subsequently arrested over the meticulously planned crime, with 19 charged and 18 standing trial in 2018. All were acquitted – though prosecutors have appealed the decision and a retrial has been scheduled for later this year.
However, prosecutors have at last secured a conviction and sentence for one of those charged in relation to the headline-grabbing robbery.
Marc Bertoldi, who is a French national, was detained after receiving the stolen goods. He then delivered some of them to a Swiss acquaintance, who tried to fence them in Geneva.
Bertoldi’s trial was delayed after he was convicted on an unrelated kidnapping charge in France.
While prosecutors initially tried to claim Bertoldi was the ‘mastermind’ behind the crime, the presiding judge at the Brussels Criminal Court ruled that he was simply an “indispensable cog”. He was convicted on charges related to conspiracy and money laundering and given a five-year sentence, which he indicated he would appeal.
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