They made off with a cache of jewels that by now, according to police sources, has very likely been melted down, re-cut and sold on the black market. Almost immediately after the heist, the loot was taken on the “professional” route followed by jewel thieves to Antwerp, Belgium, a diamond capital. Three months later, the old-fashioned bandits, nine men and one woman - most of them well-known to French police - were arrested and charged with armed robbery, among various other crimes. According to a reconstruction by detectives, the core team suspected of having led the robbery consisted of five experienced thugs, the youngest 52 years old. The brains of the operation is Pierre Bouainère, a 72-year-old career gangster from Paris who was thought to have retired after his last encounter with police in 2006, when he was arrested in Nice for possession of two kilos of cocaine.

Source: Forbes January 19, 2017 23:13 UTC