How school trip inspired Ocean’s 11 gang to pull off record £100m gem heist…using teens, tiny robbers & sticky tape
A SCHOOL trip, sticky tape, teen gangsters and tiny robbers were all part of the biggest jewel heist of all time.
Five people have been jailed over the raid which saw £100million worth of jewels stolen from the Royal Palace in Dresden, Germany.
With a plan like something out Hollywood movie Ocean’s Eleven, they cut the alarm, got inside, broke open the jewel cases, and escaped in a getaway car – all in the space of five minutes.
They fled with 21 pieces of 18th century jewellery with more than 4,300 diamonds – including a sword, a jewelled brooch, and the famous Dresden White Diamond.
But the idea of the heist is claimed to have come from an unlikely source – a school trip to the museum.
The court heard a young pal of one of the gangsters went to the Green Vault and came away “raving about the green diamonds on display there”.
And this gave the crew the idea to raid the museum for some of most precious treasures in Germany.
Behind the crime is believed to be a crime family called The Remmos – one the most notorious gangs in Berlin.
There are an estimated 500 members of the clan – with a history of violence, drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud.
And they were behind the theft of a hundred-kilo gold coin from another museum, snaffling the £2.6million coin before cutting it up into pieces and melting it down in 2017.
But two years later it appears they had their heart set on an even bigger score, the priceless gems in Green Vault.
Planning began for the heist, with members of the gang making numerous trips to the museum.
On one of these trips, they sliced the bars off one of the windows with a hydraulic saw before taping them back in place – preparing what would be their key entry point to the palace.
It is believed some 40 people were involved in the plot – but so far only five have been convicted – and two of them were only teens when the heist took place.
And then the night came from the heist at around 4am on November 25.
The raid began by setting fire to a circuit breaker panel beneath a bridge near the museum.
The fire shut down the street lights on the surrounding streets and disabled the museum’s alarm.
Two particularly small members of the gang slipped inside through the pre-cut bars.
Once they squeezed through the tiny 12 inch gap, the thieves made their way to the Green Vault.
Despite their substation trick knocking out the alarm, thankfully the CCTV was still operating in the museum.
And they were caught on camera smashing open cases – having to hit them multiple times to get through the reinforced glass using axes.
Wielding flashlights, the men managed to get inside and filled their bags to the brim with precious items.
And then they made their escape – again leaving through the cut bars, and replacing them to reduce suspicion.
It took just five minutes for them to get in and out of the museum.
Once they got outside, they dived into an underground shaft which ran beneath the street out the front of the Royal Palace.
They made their way to their waiting getaway car, an Audi A6.
The vehicle was later found by police burned out in an underground car park elsewhere in Dresden.
And with that, the gang had completed one of world’s most audacious jewellery heists – making off with loot worth as much as £100million.
For months after the crime, authorities thought the haul was lost for good, with detectives scouring Europe’s shadowy stolen goods markets for signs of the Saxon royal artefacts.
That was until December 2022, when authorities said they had recovered a “considerable portion” of the items following “exploratory talks” with the suspects.
Many of the pieces were badly damaged and some are still missing, however, including a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony.
And after the massive investigation, today five of the suspects were finally sent to prison at the Higher Regional Court in Dresden.
Two of the men, who were minors at the time of the crime, received juvenile sentences of between four and five years.
A sixth defendant was acquitted because he produced a credible alibi — an emergency surgery at a Berlin hospital.
Prosecutors managed to find some of the pieces as part of a plea deal – but some of the treasures remain lost in an act of “remarkable criminal drive and recklessness” by the thieves.
Many of the pieces were badly damaged and the missing pieces include a brooch that belonged to Queen Amalie Auguste of Saxony.
In January, four of the defendants confessed, leading to a deal for lighter sentences.
A fifth said he stole tools to penetrate the building but denied allegations that he took part in the heist itself.
Museum director Marius Winzeler said he is “optimistic” that the remaining missing pieces will one day return to Dresden, given that they “cannot be legally sold”.
Founded by Augustus, Elector of Saxony, in 1723, the Green Vault is one of Europe’s oldest museums.
After the Royal Palace suffered severe damage in World War 2, the museum remained closed for decades before it was restored and reopened in 2006 as a major tourist draw.