Seven arrested in 2005 Schiphol diamond heist
On Friday and Saturday the Koninklijke Marechaussee arrested seven suspects in connection with a diamond heist at Schiphol airport in 2005. The seven are suspected of involvement in the hijacking of an armored car carrying 67 million euros worth of diamonds, NOS reports.
The arrests were made in Amsterdam and Valencia, Spain. The suspects are five men and two women. All of them are Dutch.
Some of the stolen diamonds were found in a getaway car shortly after the robbery. But over 40 million euros worth of diamonds are still missing. The Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military and is responsible for airport security, is trying to figure out what happened to those diamonds.
The Schiphol diamond heist is one of the biggest robberies in Dutch history. It resulted in much criticism on Schiphol's security - the robbers managed to get into an extra high security section of the airport to hijack the armored car, according to NOS. Only personnel with a special pass was suppose to have access to that section.
Seven suspects were arrested shortly after the robbery, but were eventually released due to a lack of evidence. The case was closed after about a year due to a lack of clues to follow. The case was reopened last year after the Marechaussee received new information. It is unclear whether the seven suspects arrested over this weekend are the same as the seven arrested early in the investigation.
The Marechaussee expects that more arrests may follow.
