The attack on the vault has been going on for years Antwerp World Diamond Center It was considered the perfect crime. There were no shots fired, no alarms raised and no witnesses. In February 2003, a highly specialized gang managed to empty more than a hundred houses Safes and disappear with loot worth around $100 million. However, the plan’s sophistication failed due to unexpected details. a broomstick, a weasel and a Salami sandwich half eaten
The most unexpected (and absurd) password behind the Louvre heist
The case was reconstructed years later in journalistic research and recently brought to court the screen for a Netflix documentary, became an unexpected lesson in how even the most careful crimes can go wrong due to minimal oversights.
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A robbery carried out in complete silence
The coup occurred in the heart of the diamond district of Antwerpan area of just three streets in which one of the largest diamond transactions in the world is concentrated. There, in the basement of World Diamond Center, There was a vault that was considered impregnable: a 30 centimeter thick steel door, magnetic sensors, heat, motion, sound and light detectors, as well as seismic alarms that were activated at the slightest attempt at break-in.
On the morning of February 17, 2003, Belgian detectiveto Patrick Peys He received the call that would shape his career. The safe had been breached. More than a hundred safes were open and empty. Diamonds, jewels, gold and money They appeared to be scattered on the floor. The most disturbing thing: no alarm was activated.
The scene was revealed an unusual level of technical knowledge. The thieves had neutralized sensors using rudimentary but effective methods, such as covering heat detectors with insulating material attached to a simple broom handle. They had also tampered with the door’s magnetic system without producing a signal.
The perfect crime that left its mark
The investigation went on for days without any clear leads. The building’s security cameras had been stolen and there was no visual record of the robbery. The investigators had the feeling that they were dealing with unusual criminals.
How the imperial jewels were stolen from the Louvre in just seven minutes
The break in the case came from an unexpected place: a forest near a highway that is normally used as an illegal dumping ground. There, a retiree named August Van Kamp, known for reporting abandoned trash, found bags containing shredded documents, remnants of banknotes and tiny green diamonds. Van Kamp walked around the area with his weasels every day and immediately noticed that this garbage was not commonplace.
The police came immediately. What seemed like an insignificant discovery became the first crack in the criminal plan.
The name that emerged from the trash
Among the remains turned up a document with a code name: Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian diamond dealer with an office at the World Diamond Center. While searching the safe, investigators noticed a disturbing detail: Notarbartolo’s safe was one of the few that had not been broken into.
A 2018 report warned of the danger of access to the Louvre balcony, which the thieves used to break in
The investigation revealed that his office was empty and that although he acted as a trader, he never carried out any actual buying or selling transactions. Everything suggested that his presence in Antwerp was part of a long period of recognition.
The confirmation came when police searched his house after locating him. There they found a rolled carpet containing the same tiny green diamonds that had been found in the woods and at the scene of the robbery.
The sandwich that sealed the cause
From the same trash bag emerged another crucial item: a half-eaten salami sandwich and the receipt from a nearby supermarket. This tip led to an external surveillance camera – one of the few that had not been stolen – which identified Ferdinando Finotto, a recorded criminal.
Finotto was part of a group called the “Turin School,” a network of specialized criminals, each of whom was an expert in a particular technology: alarm systems, locks, fake keys or escape logistics. His nicknames – the Djinn, the Monster, the Speedster and the King of Keys – seemed straight out of a crime novel, but behind them were years of experience in high-profile heists.
Analysis of DNA, telephone records and movements before the robbery made it possible to reconstruct the gang’s functioning and its hierarchy, with Notarbartolo being the mastermind of the operation.
Beliefs, secrets and a missing loot
The trial only took place in 2015. Three members of the gang were sentenced to five years in prison and Notarbartolo, as the leader of the group, received a ten-year prison sentence. The “King of Keys,” who was responsible for forging the master key to the vault, was never captured.
The diamonds never showed up. Investigators believe they were brought to Italy and gradually put back on the legal market, a possibility well known in the world of gem trading.
LV/EM
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