Editor’s Note
This report details the immediate cross-border police response following the Louvre heist, highlighting the specialized Europol network used to track the stolen jewels.
In the hours following the Louvre heist, Belgian police received an alert from their French counterparts, urging them to monitor any attempts to sell the stolen jewels, according to two Antwerp police officers.
The alert was sent via the “Pink Diamond” network, a secure channel overseen by Europol, the European police agency, which brings together investigators specialized in large-scale thefts.
Antwerp, a Belgian port city, has been at the heart of the global diamond trade since the 16th century. Last year alone, its wholesalers traded nearly $25 billion worth of precious stones.
But for 30 years, Antwerp has struggled to contain a flourishing underworld, hosting hundreds of jewelry stores and gold workshops, mostly run by people of Georgian origin, according to Belgian and French police, prosecutors, court files, and municipal documents.
While the majority of these businesses abide by the law, some offer criminals from across Europe a channel to offload stolen gold or jewelry—a practice known as “handling stolen goods.”
French authorities have charged four people in the investigation into the Louvre heist but have not yet recovered the jewels, valued at $102 million.
They have provided no details on the manhunt. When asked about Antwerp’s potential involvement in the French investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office responded:
The Antwerp police immediately mobilized after the “Pink Diamond” alert, the two officers explained.
The police reviewed surveillance footage for French license plates and tapped their informants for any leads regarding the sale of the jewels. They also warned certain jewelers not to touch this iconic loot.
The Belgian federal police declined to comment, citing the ongoing French investigation.
Georgian traders began settling in Antwerp in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, according to police. Many came from the metals trade and maintained close ties with the city’s Jewish diamond dealers.
Today, there are about 300 jewelry stores on the periphery of the diamond district, a quarter of which are believed to be involved in handling stolen goods, according to the two police officers.
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the body representing wholesalers, told Reuters that its reputation “is sometimes tarnished” by association with certain jewelers with “dubious practices… of money laundering.”
The Antwerp diamond sector is already facing the G7 embargo on Russian stones and the influx of lab-grown diamonds, which have led to a historic price drop and calls for a sector rescue plan.
But for some jewelers, business is booming.
Some alleged handlers drive Mercedes-Benz S-Class cars, regularly open new stores, and acquire expensive real estate abroad, one of the police officers noted.
Kris Luyckx, a lawyer who has defended many jewelers of Georgian origin, asserts that regulations are strict and police checks are frequent.
French crime constitutes a regular source of income for Antwerp jewelers, according to French and Belgian officials.
After the robbery of Kim Kardashian in her Paris hotel in 2016, the mastermind confessed to having sold his melted-down gold and diamonds in Antwerp for over 25,000 euros, according to court files. Authorities believe the loot was repurchased by Georgian handlers, but no one was charged due to a lack of physical evidence.
Since then, more than half a dozen Franco-Belgian investigations have uncovered a criminal corridor between the two countries, in which Balkan burglars hand over their loot to couriers in France, who then transport it to buyers in Antwerp.
In most cases, these buyers were Georgian, according to Belgian police.
Yakout Boudali, head of intelligence at the French Gendarmerie’s Central Office for Combating Itinerant Delinquency, who has led three investigations into French thieves transporting their loot to Belgium, states that in at least two cases, the handlers in Antwerp were “of Georgian nationality or dual nationals.”
However, she warns against any “stigmatization” of Georgians or Antwerp, noting that groups based in Romania are becoming increasingly active.
The illicit jewelry trade in Antwerp adds to the difficulties of a city already grappling with drug gangs, which use Europe’s second-largest port to import multi-ton shipments of cocaine. In an open letter published on the Belgian courts’ website last month, an anonymous Antwerp judge claimed the country was on the verge of becoming a narco-state.
Antwerp created a specialized police unit in 2021 to monitor the diamond and jewelry sectors. In a report published at the time, which remains the most comprehensive official source on the subject, the city hall warned of “a strong link between fraudulent jewelers and the criminal drug milieu.”
