After a long and highly publicized trial, five men have been found guilty of a daring $123 million heist at the historic Green Vault in Dresden which took place on November 25, 2019. According to a report by MDR, one of Germany's public broadcasters, the defendants received varying prison sentences, with four of them being given lighter sentences due to their partial confessions and the return of some of the stolen treasures.
The Green Vault in Dresden held a priceless collection of historical jewelry and ornaments, including 21 diamond-studded artifacts that were targeted by the gang. The collection included shimmering bowls made of crystal and agate, jeweled figurines, and goblets made from gilded ostrich eggs. One of the most famous pieces in the collection, a 41-carat green diamond called the Dresden Green, was not in the museum at the time of the heist as it was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
The CCTV camera footage showed two masked thieves smashing the glass and grabbing the diamond-studded artifacts. The perpetrators used flashlights to navigate their way through the gallery and one of them used an ax to break the glass. The robbery took just a few minutes, and some of the world's most valuable historic jewels had vanished. Only a small portion of the loot has since been recovered.
The stolen artifacts were mostly made during the reign of Frederick Augustus III, the last Elector of Saxony, who later became Frederick Augustus I, the first King of Saxony. They included a hat clasp from the 1780s decorated with 15 large and over 100 small diamonds, a 96-centimeter (38-inch) sword, and a scabbard that contained more than 800 diamonds.
The defendants are all part of the Remmo clan, one of Germany's most powerful crime families, which operates mainly in Berlin. The main perpetrator, Rabieh Remmo, received a sentence of six years and two months in prison, while his accomplice, Wissam Remmo, was given six years and three months. Bashir Remmo received a sentence of five years and 10 months, and another participant in the crime was sentenced to four years and four months in prison under the Juvenile Criminal Code.
A fifth defendant was sentenced to five years in juvenile detention, and a seventh possible participant in the heist is still being investigated by the Saxony Police. The stolen artifacts have been described as having incalculable historical and cultural importance by Marion Ackermann, the director of Dresden's State Art Collection.