Four arrested over Berlin heist but 100-kg gold coin missing
12 July 2017 11:13 PM IST
German police on Wednesday arrested four suspects they linked to an Arabic criminal clan over the spectacular theft of a giant 100-kilogramme gold coin from a Berlin museum early this year.
But they found no sign of the loot — Canada's "Big Maple Leaf" coin, which has a face value of one million Canadian dollars and is estimated to be worth 3.75 million euros on the gold market.
Police fear the treasure "was either cut into small pieces or taken abroad" since the March 27 night-time heist, said Carsten Pfohl of the Berlin criminal police office.
"Unfortunately we have to presume that it was sold off in parts or whole," he said at a press conference.
"My hope that we'll recover even parts of the coin is unfortunately relatively low."
Around 300 police took part in dawn raids at 14 locations, including apartments and a jeweller's shop in Berlin's Neukoelln district and targets in surrounding Brandenburg state. Police said the four unidentified suspects, aged 18 to 20, and nine other suspects were all members of, or closely connected to, a Berlin organised crime group with an Arabic family clan at its core.
Two service staff at the state body that runs Berlin's museums were among those being investigated by police, the body's chief of security Hans-Juergen Harras told the national news agency DPA. The thieves stole the huge coin from the Bode Museum.
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