Russian police have recovered about $US3M worth of stolen diamonds and over $2.5M cash at the homes of a criminal ring operating inside state-controlled diamond producer Alrosa, Reuters reports.
Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds and competes with Anglo American’s De Beers as the biggest seller of rough diamonds, has confirmed that security services had uncovered an ongoing diamond theft ring in its sorting and grading department. Russia’s Investigative Committee says 3 suspects, one of whom is an Alrosa employee, have been placed in custody by a Russian court.
A video shared by the Investigative Committee showed several opened safes filled with wads of $100 bills, Tiffany and Dior jewelry boxes, and multiple plastic bags of unpolished diamonds of different shapes and colours.
Alrosa produced 36.7Mcts of diamonds last year.