ABN AMRO theft suspects identified, one arrested

by Danny, for diamondsnews.com

ANTWERPEN - The Antwerp Diamond theft cell has identified two suspects in the big theft from begin march 2007, On April 4th one was arrested in Germany told Dominique Reyniers from the Antwerp Prosecutor's office.

It is Eliser M.; Belgium asked for his extradition. He was not so clever to keep his mobile phone open, so he could be followed.

The main suspect  Yehuda M. who gave as false name Carlos Flomenbaum, is still on the run.

He probably moved to Israël after the heist. 

The diamonds with a value of 22 million euros are not yet recovered.

Danny

Diamond Heist suspects: Eliser Mishali (left) and the still running Yehuda Mishali, alias Carlos Flomenbaum, alias Mordechai Meshaly

Israeli citizen suspect in theft of $28 million worth of diamonds

German authorities have arrested an Israeli citizen, Eliser Mishali, who is a suspect in the theft of $28 million worth of diamonds from an Antwerp bank in March.

They are still looking for the loot and the prime suspect, the 55-year-old Yehuda Mishali.

Authorities said they are still searching for the main suspect as well as the diamonds.

Last month, a man broke into open safety deposit boxes in an ABM Amro bank in Antwerp's diamond district and stole 120,000 karats of diamonds. The suspect had been a regular customer at the bank for the past year, and provided the name of an Argentinian. Authorities believe that the suspect was using a false identity since it was discovered that a passport in the same name was stolen in Israel several years ago.

The bank discovered the theft on March 5, and believes that the thief took the diamonds from a vault used by pawnbrokers and diamond cutters.

Mishali carried out the theft in March from a bank where he had rented a safety deposit box under a false name taken from a stolen passport in Israel. He carefully planned the heist by visiting the bank every day for a year.

The accomplice arrested last week had been traveling for thousands of miles through Germany and the Netherlands in the second half of March and early April before he was arrested.

It is believed the diamonds will be difficult to sell on world markets since many of the gems cannot be sold without certificates of origin to show they have not come illegally from war zones.

In 2003, in the world's largest safe-deposit box theft, thieves in Antwerp pried open 123 boxes, finding so much loot they could only carry away $100 million worth of diamonds, gold and jewelry.

``The investigation is being conducted rigorously and will continue,'' the prosecutor's office said in the statement. ``All information regarding these two suspects, including their activities, former and present whereabouts are of interest to the investigators.'
A 2 million-euro reward was being offered for conclusive information leading to his arrest, the prosecutor's office said on March 12.

More than half the world's diamonds are traded in Antwerp's gem district, a maze of tiny streets hugging the main train station. Its turnover of $23 billion a year makes it one of the densest concentrations of valuables on earth.

Antwerp is known as the world's diamond capital. It is the leading trading center for rough diamonds with about 70% of the global production passing through its 1500 specialized firms.

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