Scotland Yard arrests 9 in major London jewel heist

With meticulous planning and remarkable good fortune, the thieves who broke into a safe deposit in London’s diamond district seemed to have pulled off the perfect jewel heist. But their luck ran out Tuesday when more than 200 Scotland Yard officers closed in on them. The nine arrests were a triumph for embattled detectives whose early work had been criticized because of an embarrassing failure to respond to a midnight alarm at the start of a holiday weekend. That gave the thieves more than 48 hours to carefully remove the contents of the safe used by jewelers in the Hatton Garden district.

These detectives have done their utmost to bring justice to the victims of this callous crime.

Commander Peter Spindler

The audacious robbery over the Easter weekend fascinated Britain. Dressed in fluorescent vests and hard hats, the thieves entered the high-security vault area in the London diamond district, carrying bags and wheeled garbage bins for carrying off the booty. Security footage showed the men, wearing dust masks, entering and leaving the building repeatedly after their arrival late on Thursday, April 2.

London jewel heist Europe