Leads on Dresden jewel heist suggest Arab clan involvement

Investigators probing a sensational heist of antique jewellery from Dresden's Green Vault Museum last month have in their sights Berlin-based criminal clans with an Arab background, a newspaper report said on Thursday.

The burglars had made use of an hydraulic spreading tool of the kind used by emergency services, several of which had gone missing from the Berlin fire services, the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper reported.

In addition, a known clan member was found guilty recently of breaking into the premises of a company in Bavaria that makes the devices, the newspaper said.

In response to a question from Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Dresden prosecutors’ spokesman Juergen Schmidt said the investigating team was in contact with its Berlin colleagues with a view to finding parallels with the 2017 theft of a 100kg (220lb) gold coin – the Big Maple Leaf – from a Berlin museum.

After breaking a window at the Green Vault in the early hours of November 25, two unidentified suspects used an axe to knock three holes in display cases in the jewel room. The jewellery sets that were targeted contained around 100 pieces overall.