The mastermind of the biggest diamond robbery in Dutch history was arrested in Ibiza on Tuesday afternoon, the National Police confirmed. The robbery took place on 25 February 2005 during a raid by a group of armed people on an armoured KLM airline vehicle on a maximum security runway at Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam). The robbers used firearms and used great violence against their victims, according to the police in a press release. Most of the loot, valued at more than $72 million (67 million euros) in precious stones, was never recovered. The agents of the Fugitive Locator Section have been investigating the whereabouts of the thief, until they finally located him in Ibiza “with great physical changes”, the National Police assures.
Errol H.V., 59, was sentenced in 2021 to 9.5 years in prison for the spectacular diamond theft, but only served just over three years and disappeared. It appears that the now arrested man had been been living on the island for quite some time. According to the National Police, the investigation began in November 2023, when the FAST Netherlands informed the Fugitive Locator Section, through the ENFAST Network, that a fugitive with a European arrest and surrender warrant in force, issued by the Netherlands, for robbery with violence and intimidation using weapons, could be found in Ibiza.
From that moment on, the agents of the Fugitive Locator Section went to Ibiza. After an exhaustive search, he was located in a villa on the island and was finally located on Tuesday afternoon when he left his house and got into a car as a passenger.
Aesthetic changes
The agents chased the car for several kilometers and stopped the car and cut him off with three cars and arrested him. Investigators noted his vast physical change compared to the photographs they had available to them. Errol H.V. had a much more youthful and slimmer appearance. In addition, the agents do not rule out that he had undergone cosmetic retouching to change his appearance so as not to be easily recognized. Once arrested, he was placed at the disposal of the Central Court of Instruction number 6 of the Audiencia Nacional.
The facts
Four men were convicted of the theft in 2021 after a lengthy investigation and undercover operation in several countries. The suspects were also arrested in 2005 and 2006 but they had to released for lack of evidence. A fifth suspect died during the criminal trial.
The main suspect, Errol H.V., was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison, having been deemed the mastermind of the robbery, while the driver of the getaway car, Marlon D received a six-year prison sentence. Both had remained in the vehicle during the robbery.
Erik P., who had also participated in a first robbery attempt, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison, and a KLM airline employee, Ramazan N., who assisted the robbers from inside Schiphol, received a five-year sentence.
A colleague of his, also an airport employee, was acquitted because his involvement in the robbery could not be proven with legal and convincing arguments, but he was sentenced to six months in prison for money laundering.
Simon van M., who was suspected of having put the airport employees in contact with the robbers, was acquitted of the robbery for lack of evidence, but sentenced to two months imprisonment for possession of prohibited weapons.
A seventh suspect, and probably another mastermind of the robbery, died recently.
In January 2017, the seven suspects – five men and two women, all Dutch – were arrested in Amsterdam and Valencia in a joint operation by the two countries.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.