Cops arrested more than 30 people in connection with a spectacular diamond heist back in February.  The international operation nabbed suspects and evidence in Belgium, France, and Switzerland.

In a coordinated series of early-morning raids, more than 200 police officers in Francophone Europe were sent out to gather suspects.

Around the Brussels area, police made 24 arrests and “recovered big amounts of cash” and luxury cars.  In Geneva, Swiss prosecutors say cops picked up eight suspects and recovered “a large quantity of jewels” from the heist, as well as “100,000 Swiss Francs”.

And in France, police arrested 43-year-old Marc Bertolbi, who through his lawyer has already denied responsibility in the Belgium heist.  Cops say Bertolbi had 60 Thousand Euros in his car at the time of his arrest.  He owns property on the French Riviera and a restaurant and luxury car company in Morocco. 

Belgium has requested his extradition.  Prosecutor Jean-Marc Meilleur says, “We think that the suspect detained in France was one of the people that carried out the robbery.”

On 18 February, a heavily-armed gang posed a police officers, breached the fence at Zaventem airport, and targeted an airplane that had just received an huge shipment of diamonds from an armored truck.  They forced their way into the cargo hold, removed 20 boxes of jewels, and made it out in barely 10 minutes.