Largest cash burglary in LA – $30m in cash missing

Workers at GardaWorld, a nondescript warehouse in Sylmar, a sleepy, suburban area of the San Fernando Valley, entered the safe to find $30m in cash missing.The thieves had been able to breach the warehouse, apparently through the roof but perhaps through a hole cut in the side of the building, break into the safe and swipe the cash without triggering security systems. Police received a call for service at 4.30am on Easter Sunday, but by then the largest cash burglary in city history was already executed.

The opportunity for big cash thefts such as the Easter LA heist have been given an unlikely boost thanks to the legalization of cannabis in most US states. Most banks (those insured by the government) cannot deal with the cannabis industry, valued at $57bn in the US this year, leading to a boom in cash storage and the transportation business.

GardaWorld has carved itself out as significant player in the cannabis industry, where security costs are a significant expense. It employs more than 132,000 globally, operating in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in addition to North America.

[February 7 2024 Canada $20 m Brinks gold heist ]

In Federal Court filings that claim breach of contract and millions of dollars in damages, Brinks said an “unidentified individual” gained access to the airline’s cargo warehouse and presented a “fraudulent” waybill shortly after an Air Canada flight from Zurich landed at Pearson.

The statement of the claim says the staff then handed over 400 kilograms of gold in the form of 24 bars plus nearly $2 million in cash to the thief, who promptly “absconded with the cargo.”

Air Canada employee Parmpal Sidhu, 54, from Brampton, Ontario, jewelry store owner Ali Raza, 37, from Toronto, Amit Jalota, 40, a Oakville, Ontario resident, Ammad Chaudhary, 43, from Georgetown, Ontario and Prasath Paramalingam, 35, from Brampton are among those that have been arrested. Mavity said they have been released on bail conditions and will be in court at a later date.

Mavity said the truck driver that allegedly picked up the gold, Durante King-Mclean, a 25-year-old from Brampton, is currently in custody in the U.S. on firearms and trafficking related charges.

Police are searching for former Air Canada manager Simran Preet Panesar, 31, from Brampton as well as Archit Grover, 36, from Brampton and Arsalan Chaudhary, 42, from Mississauga Ontario.

Peel Regional Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said only CA$90,000 ($65,000) of the more than CA$20 million has been recovered.

Toronto Pearson Aiirport

[February 7 2024 Brain Errol H V caught in €70 m diamonds theft at Schiphol airport in 2005 ]

Errol H V, the man said to be one of the brains behind the theft of €70 million worth of diamonds at Schiphol airport in 2005 has been arrested on the Spanish island of Ibiza, the Telegraaf reported on Wednesday.
Errol H V was jailed for 9.5 years in absentia in 2021 for his role in the biggest heist in Dutch history by appeal court judges. He had disappeared in 2020 after he was released from jail to wait for his appeal.
Sources close to H V told the paper he had been picked up on the island where he had been living for some time by Spanish police, although this has not been officially confirmed. Nor has an extradition date been set.
Seven people were arrested in Spain and Amsterdam in 2017 in connection with the heist after a long undercover operation. Two years later, four were jailed, two were found not guilty and one had died.
HV was given a seven-year jail term but in 2020 he and the other gang members were released from jail and allowed to wait for their appeals in freedom.
Part of the diamond haul was recovered from a getaway car but the majority of the gems are still missing.

[November 11 2020 Germany: heist of ‘safe bags’ ]

Police on November 11 2020 released several grainy CCTV shots of one suspect dressed in black, appealing to the public for information and offering a six-figure reward,

On Nov. 1 at the customs building in Emmerich am Rhein at around 6 a.m, three darkly-dressed men with black caps loaded a white van for nearly five hours. The three had drilled through a cellar wall in the customs office from the neighboring building and were able to make off with the money, which was stored in so-called safe bags.  The group of burglars made off with 6.5 million euros ($7.7 million). 

[ August 27 2019  Brussels airport tarmac diamond defendants acquitted – appealed   ]

Houssein Bajjadi and the 10 other accused identified by Belgian authorities are due to be retried at the end of 2019 or early 2020 after the prosecution appealed their acquittal last year.

June 26, 2018 brussels – The Public Prosecution Service appeals against the acquittal last month of eighteen suspects of the diamond robbery at Brussels airport in 2013.

Brinks of Belgium truck robbed

BRUSSELS — Five years after a brazen multimillion-dollar diamond heist on the tarmac of Brussels Airport, the Brussels Criminal Court on Thursday, May 17, cited a lack of evidence as it acquitted 18 suspects in the case.“They made a very wide sweep. They focused on some famous names,” said defence lawyer Nathalie Gallant, who claimed the investigators “worked with blinkers” on. She said the verdicts were not a surprise to those in the courtroom.
In its judgment, the Brussels court found that “the elements are not sufficiently precise and concordant to establish the guilt of the defendants,” . It lifted all confiscations of their property which had been seized as a precautionary measure. “The Brussels Criminal Court drew conclusions on a case that began with rumors,” said one of the defense lawyers, Pierre Monville,

[   ‘Dr. Fantástico’ 6 minutes yields $5M in Brink robbery at Brazil airport   ]

Criminals stormed into the apron of the International Airport of Viracopos, in Campinas, a city some 100 km from São Paulo, Sunday evening, 9:30 pm local time, said Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos, which controls the airport. The criminals used a Hilux truck

[March 6 ]

The Lufthansa jet landed at Viracopos, Brazil’s largest freight airport, from nearby Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo. The plane was stopping over before flying to Zurich, Switzerland.
The robbers drove a pickup truck plastered with the logo of a local security company into the airport grounds.
Five of the robbers held up guards from the security company Brinks, loaded the money on the truck and drove off, according to Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.
The heist lasted six minutes and none of the guards were hurt.

earlier Brink Antwerp diamond robbery

[May 15 2015 Cannes robbery yields $20066375.00, €17.5 million (£13 million) worth of jewellery and watches ]

the Cartier jewelery shop on the Croisette in Cannes has been holded up by four armed men who fled with a large amount of jewelry One robber in an old-man mask carrying a pistol burst into a Cartier boutique, letting in two accomplices with scarves around their faces, while a fourth man stood guard outside.
Two employees and a shopper were in the store at the time.
The robbers stuffed jewellery and watches into a leather satchel and jewellery bag. In their rush to make a getaway, they dropped several expensive watches onto the pavement, later recovered by the store.
The thieves made off in a Mercedes reported stolen in March that was later found burned out in a residential part of the town.
The Cartier store lies next to the luxury Carlton hotel – the scene of another daring jewellery raid in July 2013 that saw a lone thief make off with more than €140 million of gems, after breaking into the hotel through a door on the ground floor.

[March 13 Hatton Garden, London: USD $ 298, 570,000.00 in jewels and gold stolen]

Daily Mirror scoop

London Diamond Bourse (LDB) stated that the value of stolen goods has not yet been confirmed, so it will not fuel media speculation by commenting in that respect. London’s media has placed the value of stolen goods at anywhere from $50 million to $300 million.

We are currently one of London’s most successful and leading safe deposit company aiming to provide our clients a secure and cost-effective solution to store and protect important and irreplaceable personal belongings

Over the Easter weekend. burglars used heavy equipment to break into a vault used mainly by jewellers and gold dealers, Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. “The amount of money and the goods that are taken is never fully revealed… and there’s a good chance that not everybody would declare.
“I would not be surprised, given where this one is in Hatton Garden, if £200m is around about the amount stolen.”
In 2003 jewellery, cash and valuables worth an estimated £1.5m were stolen when a criminal, posing as a customer, emptied a number of boxes at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company

jewel robbery.

[March 14 9525150 Dollar jewel hijack on French highway]
http://youtu.be/eqMd2u0kBhM
https://twitter.com/ecoregion_bourg/status/575585637203578880

Just after midnight two trucks were passing through a motorway toll at Avallon, in Burgundy, when they were targeted. Four cars surrounded the lorries – laden with valuable goods – as up to 15 robbers wearing balaclavas and brandishing automatic weapons jumped out.
“The trucks were full of jewels and other valuable goods,” said a judicial source involved in the investigation. “They were driven away along with the four cars being used by the robbers.” [March 14 Difficult, however, to know what the robbers can concretely collect for the loot. “The ratio rarely exceeds 40% of the value for concealment. It is rather on the order of 20%. In all cases, in my opinion, having regard to the manner in which the robbery took place, we will not find the loot. »

[May 39 2014 Diamond heisters were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found]

the men were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found

Authorities in Morocco have reported the arrest of four men wanted in connection with a number of armed robberies, including the diamond robbery that took place at Brussels Airport in February of last year.

The four are wanted for “attempted murder, armed robbery at goods transport warehouses, a major jewel theft at a European airport and an armed attack on a Belgian hospital with the intention of helping a prisoner escape.
[January 3 2014]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.
The robbery at Zaventem took place on 18 February 2013, when eight armed and masked men in police uniforms attacked a Swiss airlines flight.

[July 26 2013]

The grouinds for arrest were based “on anything,” according to his Metz lawyer , M e Olivier Rondu. Or more precisely a document fifty pages in which the Moroccan authorities say they have captured a conversation between Marc Bertoldi and his wife established in Casablanca. After connecting on his cell on 18 and 19 February, the masteremind said he had made a big hit, and if she was watching TV she would understand

Marc Bertoldi, the criminal mastermind behind the heist of at least tens of millions of dollars worth of rough diamonds from an airport in Belgium, has been deported to that country to stand trial. The 43-year-old suspect has a lengthy criminal record. Bertoldi is a French citizen and he was captured in France. Bertoldi admitted that he had sold some of the loot. However, he said he did not participate in the robbery. According to a report from Moroccan intelligence services, he called his wife to tell her to watch the news, saying he had done something big. Dimitri de Beco, his lawyer said that his phone had been left off for two days before the robbery, “This report not, more than five pages and is not signed . The Moroccan intelligence report is that he said to his wife, one day before the robbery, he would not be reachable. “these claims are questionable because Moroccan intelligence services do not specify how or where they got this information.”
Moreover, “the investigators of the Belgian police, who went to Casablanca as part of a commission, had never heard of this report,” says the lawyer, who said that “this information can not under no circumstances be used to keep my client in jail.” The judge Marc Bertoldi ruled that Bertoldi is suspected of being the author or, at least, to have participated in the spectacular robbery.

[May 8]

Brink’s of Belgium truck robbed of lots of diamonds

Police in Belgium, Switzerland and France have arrested 31 people in connection with one of the world’s largest robberies of diamonds.

Belgian prosecutors say they have recovered large sums of money and some of the diamonds that were taken in a raid at Brussels airport in February.

Query: why was Brink’s the shipper for a portion of the diamonds going from Antwerp to Switzerland [not the other way around]? Exports of rough diamonds in February fell to 7.49 million carats from 9.10 million carats last year, while declining to US$1.12 billion from US$1.16 billion last year. Global miners such as De Beers and Rio take the entire quantity of rough diamonds directly to major hubs like Belgium, assort them and sell to global processors, to avoid taxes.
Brink’s of Belgium, whose truck was robbed on the airport tarmac of lots of diamonds, has a nasty legal battle with its unions ongoing. An inside job seems likely. They took 120 parcels of diamonds weighing 22lbs . They were uncut, with no certificate. “The perpetrators knew very clearly, ” said Caroline Wolf.

Faced with a complicated labor dispute in 2010, Brink’s cut its losses. Brink’s of Belgium, the cash-delivery business, declared bankruptcy. Its workers were laid off without severance. Brink’s moved management to the Netherlands, while keeping the lucrative Antwerp-based jewelry-delivery business. “We didn’t have a choice, we were losing too much money,” said Mr. Candel.

The unions filed suit in a Belgian court challenging the change in job status and lack of severance. “Brink’s acted as if we wouldn’t be vigilant, but we have lawyers,” said Valerie Van Waregem, a delegate for the socialist union.

Labor experts say Brink’s probably erred in not negotiating a compromise with unions over severance, something that is required in the event of bankruptcy by a 2008 EU directive. “We never refused a dialogue with the unions,” said Mr. Candel. “They refused to work.”

In Europe, “one cannot do what one would be able to do in the United States with a bankruptcy,” said Thomas Kohler, a professor of labor law at Boston College. “In U.S. law, employees are unsecured creditors. It’s a very different situation in Europe.”

The insurance for air transport – handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies – is usually relatively cheap because it’s considered to be the safest way of transporting small high value items, logistics experts say.

Exports of rough diamonds in February fell to 7.49 million carats from 9.10 million carats last year, while declining to US$1.12 billion from US$1.16 billion last year. Global miners such as De Beers and Rio take the entire quantity of rough diamonds directly to major hubs like Belgium, assort them and sell to global processors, to avoid taxes.
Brink’s Co., a provider of armored cars to transport valuables, said a diamond robbery at Brussels airport will have a “significant impact” on first-quarter earnings.
A portion of the gems stolen two days ago was being shipped by Brink’s, the Richmond, Virgina-based company said today in a statement.
“The total loss exposure has not been verified, and the loss exposure for Brink’s has not been disclosed,” the company said. Brink’s “has a longstanding insurance program in place to cover its losses.”
Brink’s said that while the loss will hurt first-quarter earnings, the robbery won’t “materially affect” it’s full- year profit forecast.

But a robbery of this size also catches the eyes of people who study the illegal diamond trade. A decade ago, concern over so-called “blood diamonds,” which are diamonds mined in conflict zones, led to industry participation in a regulatory process designed to clarify a precious stone’s place of origin. The goal was to make it harder to use illegal diamond sales to finance armed conflicts.
In effect since 2003, the Kimberley Process is a voluntary system that combines compliance from industry, government, and non-government monitors. This morning’s stolen diamonds should fall under the Kimberly Process rules, which cover “rough” or uncut diamonds, not finished ones. This morning’s stolen diamonds were rough.
If they were going from Belgium to Switzerland, and they were rough, they would have needed a Kimberley certificate