Three members of a infamous felony gang confessed to stealing priceless 18th-century jewels from a German state museum at their trial in Dresden on Tuesday.
Rabieh Remmo, one in every of six defendants, informed the regional court docket within the japanese metropolis that he and an unnamed confederate broke into the Green Vault museum in a brazen night-time raid in November 2019.
The 29-year-old mentioned they smashed the glass of the show instances “with an axe” and jammed the jewellery in a sack they introduced with them, in an announcement as a part of a sentencing deal.
The confederate then used a fireplace extinguisher to destroy any traces of their DNA, he mentioned.
JENS SCHLUETER/POOL/AFP by way of Getty Images
The group, which had cased the museum on two earlier journeys, fled in a getaway automobile to a parking storage the place they set hearth to the car to cowl their tracks earlier than returning to Berlin. An Audi A6 was discovered torched in an underground storage by police, CBS News’ Roxana Saberi reported.
“My contribution to the crime was larger than I first said,” Remmo admitted, following a partial confession final 12 months. “I was, myself, in the rooms of the Green Vault.”
Two of the accused, Wissam and Mohamed Remmo, additionally informed the court docket they’d taken half within the spectacular heist, in statements learn by their attorneys.
Both mentioned, nonetheless, they’d not been contained in the museum, however moderately stood watch and took receipt of the stolen items in addition to the instruments used within the break-in.
They mentioned the thought was hatched after a youthful acquaintance “came back from a field trip to the Green Vault in Dresden raving about the green diamonds on display there.”
A fourth defendant mentioned he would subject an announcement on the subsequent listening to on Friday as a part of a deal organized between protection attorneys and the prosecution and accredited by the court docket final week.
Arthur Brand, a distinguished investigator of stolen artwork, informed CBS News that such identifiable stolen artifacts can be unattainable to promote on the open market.
“Art can be money. But you cannot sell it; once it’s in the criminal underworld, it stays there,” he mentioned.
In trade for his or her confessions and the return of the many of the valuable jewels, the defendants are to obtain softer sentences.
A fifth suspect has nonetheless rejected the deal whereas the sixth and remaining defendant has informed the judges he has an alibi for the day of the heist.
Last week the court docket advisable jail sentences of a number of years for stealing the loot value at the least 113.8 million euros ($123.1 million on the present charge), with German media dubbing it the most important artwork heist in trendy historical past.
The judges proposed jail time starting from 4 years and 9 months to 6 years and 9 months as a part of the association with the attorneys that led to a number of the stolen valuables being recovered from a river in mid-December.
The thieves grabbed 21 items of bijou and different valuables from the gathering of the Saxon ruler Augustus the Strong, encrusted with greater than 4,300 particular person diamonds.
Some of the items are nonetheless lacking, together with a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony, whereas most of the items are badly broken.
The jewels included a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulder piece which accommodates the well-known 49-carat Dresden white diamond.
“I didn’t keep the loot — I didn’t have access to it. I don’t know what happened to it,” Rabieh mentioned on Tuesday. “I did all I could to ensure that what was left came back to Dresden.”
The males on trial are members of the so-called Remmo clan, an prolonged household recognized for ties to organized crime in Germany.
Some 40 individuals are nonetheless needed and believed to have been concerned within the heist.
Jens Meyer / AP