Great jewelry heist in Dresden was an unsophisticated heist 1:54
(CNN) --
It took at least nine heavy blows with an ax to crack the glass case of Dresden's historic Green Vault.
Once the glass shattered, the two masked thieves took 21 priceless artifacts and disappeared.
It was November 25, 2019, and in the space of a few minutes, some of the most valuable historical jewels in the world had vanished.
Now, the six men accused of carrying out one of the biggest jewelery heists in history are preparing to go on trial in Germany starting this Friday, January 28.
But the mystery of what happened to the supposedly stolen treasures continues.
This is the story of a robbery that shocked the world, and the meticulous police work that led to the capture of six members of the family gang that police say are believed to be responsible for it.
Adorned with more than 4,300 diamonds, the treasures stolen from the Green Vault were valued at at least 113 million euros ($128 million), according to state prosecutors.
However, the director of the Dresden State Art Collection, Marion Ackermann, said its material value does not reflect its "incalculable" historical and cultural importance.
These are some of the priceless objects in the Green Vault.
Almost all of the stolen objects were made during the rule of Frederick Augustus III, the last Elector of Saxony, who later became known as Frederick Augustus I, the first King of Saxony.
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These included a hat brooch from the 1780s decorated with 15 large and more than 100 small diamonds, as well as a 38-inch sword and scabbard, which together contained more than 800 diamonds.
The historic Green Vault is located inside Dresden Castle.
Credit: Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo
But it wasn't just the sheer value of the loot that captured the world's attention, it was the brazenness with which the theft was supposedly carried out.
Roy Ramm, a security consultant and former specialist operations commander at New Scotland Yard in London, told CNN that crimes like this are becoming rarer.
"Technical security has improved over the years with CCTV alarm systems and all sorts of high-tech protections, so [there's a high] risk of early detection and actually being caught in the act... you need some inside information and a very, very detailed plan," he said.
According to investigators, four months before the robbery, one of the suspects drove to the city of Magdeburg, some 290 kilometers northwest of Dresden, to pick up a used dark blue Audi S6 – the future getaway car.
The vehicle had already been written off, but police said the gang went even further in its efforts to disguise its origin, changing its color to silver and leaving only the dark roof.
A photo distributed by the police shows one of the stolen pieces.
Credit: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
"What this tells me is that these people planned meticulously; they were going through, in their minds, how the robbery would happen and what the reaction of the police would be, and all the while they were thinking of ways to disrupt police activity or win." more time," Ramm said.
"If a passerby saw the car leaving the scene, and that person was able to give a description of the vehicle, once the police started making inquiries about that vehicle, they became more complicated, more difficult and longer to investigate. sort out".
And police say the gang's preparations didn't stop at choosing a getaway vehicle.
According to the authorities, a few days before the robbery they cut the bars of the window through which the thieves entered the vault.
Removing the metal grille entirely might have aroused the suspicion of bystanders, so the suspects covered their tracks by temporarily gluing the bars in place, police said.
The window was in a blind spot, so it was not visible on security cameras and the whole area was in "complete darkness", the Saxony State Ministry for Culture and Tourism said in response to a question from parliament.
A motion sensor that should have been triggered by the break-in did not go off.
The ministry said that the alarm had been raised the day before the crime and the security guards did not reactivate it.
CNN has contacted the state attorney's office for more details about the alarm failure, but the office declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing.
Timeline of the heist
Around 4:50 a.m. on Monday, November 25, 2019, the gang sprang into action, according to police.
First, police said, the thieves or their accomplices set fire to a power distribution box near the Green Vault.
This caused nearby street lights to go out, plunging the entire area into darkness.
Then, at 4:57, they headed to the vault.
Police said security camera video showed the thieves knew where they were going.
After entering the building through the window of the mirror-filled Treasure Room, police believe they rushed through the vault's Heraldry Room, straight into the Jewel Room, where the most treasured pieces are on display. museum valuables.
The images of the security cameras show that the thieves barely took a few minutes to enter, break the window, take the jewelry and leave.
The thieves could not steal all the pieces of the exhibition, because some were sewn to the showcases, Ackermann explained to the German public broadcaster ZDF.
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But before fleeing, the thieves doused the room with a powder extinguisher to cover their tracks, police said.
"Footprints are often used to identify footwear worn by criminals," Ramm said.
"Quite often, they get rid of gloves and all sorts of things, but they forget to get rid of shoe prints. So anything that disrupts the forensic trail is, I don't know if I should say it, useful."
Police said the thieves escaped the scene in the Audi and that, just 13 minutes after the security camera first captured footage of them entering the vault, the gang's getaway vehicle had been abandoned and set on fire in a underground parking about five kilometers away.
Police linked the car to the robbery almost immediately.
"It's incredibly difficult to use a vehicle and not leave DNA behind," Ramm said.
"There have been many cases around the world where small amounts of DNA have been found and it has been enough to link the person to a vehicle...so setting the car on fire was all about DNA."
The police operation, codenamed Operation Epaulette after one of the items stolen that day, began the moment the museum's security personnel made the first emergency call, while the thieves were still inside the building.
The two vault security guards saw the break-in on security monitors but did not intervene.
That decision was later challenged by police, but Ackerman said security personnel had followed established security protocols.
Ramm said detectives probably started by taking a closer look at the museum itself.
"The only way for these things to happen is if the thieves have very good insider information," he explained.
"They have to know there aren't, like, lasers around the room, they have to know there aren't pressure-sensitive tabs all over the place. It's extremely risky to do what they did."
"It is conceivable that they did a lengthy investigation in the building," Ramm said.
The Saxony State Prosecutor's Office said in March 2020 that it was investigating four members of the museum's security staff.
Last week, the State Attorney's Office told CNN that the investigation is ongoing.
A spokesman said that a criminal complaint was filed against two guards by a private individual, alleging that they "did not react properly and did not prevent the robbery".
The spokesman stated that two other security guards were also investigated.
One of them was suspected of having given the perpetrators of the crime documents about the Green Vault and its security systems, and was arrested four days after the theft.
The other guard was released after an investigation, he said.
The spokesman added that a fourth guard was being investigated, as "there are indications of an action in relation to the alarm system, which could have facilitated the robbery."
The great vault robbery in Dresden in which priceless treasures were stolen
The investigation
In September 2020, the police announce that they have received hundreds of pieces of information and have searched several properties in Berlin that are believed to be related to the robbery.
They also found out more about the getaway vehicle, including where it had been repainted, and released a composite photo of one of the suspects.
So, on November 17, 2020, almost a year after the theft of the precious treasures of the Green Vault, the police launched a huge security operation in Berlin, involving special forces and 1,638 officers from all over Germany.
His target was five members of the infamous Clan Remmo, one of the most powerful crime families in Germany, operating primarily in Berlin.
Ralph Ghadban, a political scientist and expert on clans or gangs in Germany, said the way the robbery was allegedly carried out and the number of suspects and their possible accomplices involved shows the power clans wield.
"The clan protects and helps its members, can have many thousands of members, and can dominate and terrorize entire neighborhoods of the city," he said, adding that the "forceful and swift" action shown during the robbery is one of the cards of clan presentation.
The police announced the arrest of three of the five main suspects during the operation in Berlin.
Police identified the two suspects who remained at large as twin brothers Abdul Majed R. and Mohamed R.;
A massive manhunt began to find them.
Interpol issued a red notice for the twins, but it was another month before Mohamed was captured in a car in the Berlin district of Neukölln, in the territory of the Remmo clan.
Abdul Majed remained at large for another five months before he too was arrested on May 17, 2021.
A sixth and final suspect in the case was arrested in August 2021, according to police.
A month later, prosecutors in the case finally charged the six men with crimes that included felony gang robberies and arson.
Three of the suspects are brothers and the other three are their cousins.
Two of the defendants were previously convicted of stealing a commemorative 100-kilogram gold coin, known as the "Great Maple Leaf," from the Bode Museum in Berlin, and are now serving prison terms for it.
CNN has contacted representatives for the defendants for comment.
The suspects may be in custody, but for the police the investigation is far from over.
"Something of this nature, where the objects themselves are irreplaceable, most detectives I've worked with over the years would think it's a job half done, not having recovered the objects," Ramm said.
The showcase in the Room of Jewels is still empty.
Credit: Sebastian Kahnert/picture alliance/Getty Images
So what happened to those priceless jewels stolen from the display case that day in November 2019?
Ramm and other experts believe the most likely scenario is the one the museum's curators feared most: that the stolen objects have been divided up, the stones sold and the precious metals melted down.
"All of that requires organization," says Ramm.
"It's very rare that the people who actually stole the items are the ones who finally got rid of them. There will be a network and so the police will be very, very interested in getting the cell phones, computers and anything that proves the links between the six people who are going to be tried shortly and any other criminal group".
Indeed, hard drives, computers and mobile phones were seized during the gigantic police investigation, but the stolen treasures have disappeared without a trace.
The Green Vault remained closed to visitors for months, due to the investigation and later the coronavirus pandemic.
When it reopened in May 2020, the display case was repaired but deliberately left empty.
The trial is scheduled to last until at least the end of October.
If convicted, the suspects face possible jail terms of several years.
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