Mastermind behind diamond heist: I want to do it again, better this time
May 1, 2024
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Leonardo Notarbartolo was the mastermind behind one of the most spectacular safecracking ever. He says he would definitely like to do the Antwerp diamond heist again: 'but much better'. It has been 21 years since the largest diamond theft in history took place in Antwerp's diamond district. Criminal but brilliant, except that the perpetrators were caught. The Gazet van Antwerpen visited Notarbartolo (72) in Northern Italy.
100 million
In 2003, he and four others managed to enter the heavily secured vaults of the Diamond Center in Antwerp's Schupstraat. That was thought impossible because the building and the safe were extremely secured with all kinds of sensors.
The robbers made off with $100 million worth of diamonds and jewelry.
“Alessandro”
Notarbartolo was a robber who gradually became a healer and eventually started a trading company in jewelry, diamonds and precious stones in Antwerp. A certain “Alessandro” came to him one day and asked if he wanted to do something.
Alessandro asked him to participate in cracking the Diamond Center's high-security vault, and Notarbartolo agreed.
Alessandro had already put together a team that seems to have been cast straight out of a Hollywood production. Nicknames were: the Genius, the King of Keys, Speedy and the Monster. Each with their own specialization.
Notarbartolo himself arranged the project of disabling the motion sensors in the vault and in the building.
Replica
In a warehouse, Alessandro had built a life-size replica of the vault room in the Diamond Center. Even the smallest detail was incorporated into the replica, including motion sensors, door sensors and cameras.
The first attempt is abandoned.
In the courtyard of the building complex they are accidentally seen by someone who was smoking on a balcony. The group pretended to be drunken partygoers and fled.
Four months later they took another chance. The attempt also failed because the locks on the outside doors had just been replaced.
Litter
Six months later success comes.
All hurdles are cleared and 109 of the 189 individual lockers are opened.
Two days after the squat, the theft was discovered on Monday.
Along a highway, a passerby accidentally finds litter in which a card from Notarbartolo and the receipt for a sandwich are found. The find eventually ends up with the investigation team.
Notarbartolo served his sentence in the prisons of Merksplas and Hasselt. He spent his years as a librarian and cleaner. In 2009 he was released on conditions.
He says he has not seen a euro of the loot, and says he knows that others have sold parts of the loot. 'For far too low a price'.
Who the client “Allesandro” was has always remained a mystery.
https://www.crimesite.nl/brein-achter-diamantroof-ik-wil-het-nog-eens-doen-nu-beter/
