The NDTV News reported on Feb. 19, 2013, that eight armed men disguised as police officers stole diamonds worth around $50 million at Brussels airport from a Switzerland bound plane.
According to reports, a mix of rough and cut stones from the world's biggest diamond trading center Antwerp were brought and were being loaded onto a plane to Zurich which was a transit point.
Eight thieves, who were heavily armed and hooded wearing police uniforms, drove onto the tarmac in two vehicles flashing lights.
Antwerp's role as a diamond center suffered a blow due to this robbery. Last year the diamonds traded were of $51.9 billion value (about 80% of the world's diamond trade of rough diamonds).
A spokeswoman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre said that the diamonds from Antwerp have been targeted by thieves before, but this robbery was the biggest as far as she could recall and was shocked by it.
She said that not all of the shipment had been stolen and the thieves seized 120 packages of diamonds.
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