In 2003, Antwerp, Belgium, was the scene of one of the most audacious heists in modern history, when a highly secure vault was ransacked, resulting in the loss of an estimated $100 million worth of diamonds and jewelry. The case, which would become known as the “theft of the century,” remained without suspects until a seemingly trivial detail helped unravel the mystery: a complaint about trash lying on the floor.
Antwerp, located in northern Belgium, is widely known as the diamond capital of the world. About 80% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through the city to be sold or polished. The trade generates more than $50 billion a year and is mainly concentrated in a single building in the city center, known as the “Diamond Quarter.” The area is heavily guarded, with more than 60 surveillance cameras monitoring its three streets.
At the heart of this area is the Diamond Centre, a seemingly drab office building, but its basement contains a high-security vault, protected by a 30cm thick door, a security key and a sophisticated alarm system.
On the morning of Monday, February 17, 2003, police were called to the Diamond Center, where they found more than a hundred of the vault’s 189 individual safes had been opened and ransacked. The scene was chaotic: diamonds, gold coins and jewelry were strewn across the floor, and the thieves had left behind tools, with no fingerprints. Amazingly, the thieves had managed to disable all the security systems and took with them videotapes from 24 cameras that monitored the building and the vault itself.
Without concrete evidence, the Belgian police, led by investigator Patrick Bess, remained ignorant of the matter until they received an unexpected call a few days later.
The complaint that changed everything
The call came from August Van Camp, a retired grocer who used to walk the weasel on his property near the highway. Van Camp had complained many times about trash left on his property by travelers, but on that February day, the trash caught his attention in a different way. Suspicious, he called the police, who immediately collected the trash bags.
Among the debris, police found torn up documents, bonds, coins, envelopes bearing the Antwerp Diamond Centre logo and small green diamonds. The contents of the trash pointed to Leonardo Notarbartolo, an Italian diamond dealer who had an office in the diamond centre and a safe in the basement, and who, Italian police revealed, had an extensive criminal record.
Notarbartolo was quickly arrested, but he refused to cooperate with police. Notarbartolo, described by Pease as “a very distinguished and polite man,” chose to remain silent, frustrating the efforts of Belgian and Italian authorities who questioned him. However, evidence found in the trash, including a receipt from an Italian grocery store in the Diamond District, led police to identify another person involved: Ferdinando Venuto, who also had a criminal history.
The investigation revealed that the five perpetrators of the crime belonged to an Italian gang known as the “School of Torino.” Each member had a specialty, and their code names were inspired by comic book characters: Genie, Beast, Speedy, and King of Keys. The genius, Elio Donorio, was an expert in electronics and alarms. The Beast, Ferdinando Venuto, was an expert in lockpicking; and Legerino, Pietro Tavano, a childhood friend of Notarbartolo, was responsible for dumping the garbage bags on the land next to the highway, which would prove to be a fatal mistake in the outcome of the case.
Operating mode
The gang’s ingenious scheme involved placing a video camera above the vault entrance, which recorded the guards entering the safe code. This camera transmitted the images to a receiver hidden in a fire extinguisher. The Key King, whose real name was never discovered, was able to duplicate the 30cm key needed to open the vault door from the recordings.
To prevent the alarms from being set off, the genie used an aluminum plate to control the door’s magnetic locks, while Notarbartolo sprayed hairspray on the thermal motion sensors, temporarily disabling them. The gang is believed to have built a replica of the inside of the safe to carry out the heist, similar to the famous TV series “House of Cards.”
With the evidence gathered, the four known gang members were brought to trial in May 2005. Ferdinando Venuto, Elio Donore and Pietro Tavano were sentenced to five years in prison, while Leonardo Notarbartolo, identified as the mastermind of the operation, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. The stolen jewelry and diamonds were never recovered.
Notarbartolo was paroled in 2009, but was arrested again after violating the terms of his release by traveling to California to discuss a movie deal about the robbery with a Hollywood producer. He ended up serving the remainder of his sentence.
