The dome robbery gang planned to sell the 12 millennium diamonds

The dome robbery gang planned to sell the 12 millennium diamonds to the Russian mafia. The £200m gems, including the 203-carat Millennium Star, would have been smuggled to Russia via Spain, probably cut up into smaller, less recognisable gems then sold on the black market or through diamond auction houses. The property near Tower Bridge was used as a mailing point where packages could be dropped off and picked up.But the building was empty when police raided it. Detective Chief Superintendent Jon Shatford, former head of the Flying Squad, said: “We were quite sure the diamonds were going to go to the Russian mafia and that there was contact with the Russian mafia.”Another possibility is that the gems were destined for a private collector who had agreed to buy them, although police found no evidence of this.

One theory is that the customer was an Arab multimillionaire.Law enforcement agencies and legitimate gem sellers have become increasingly worried at how Russian criminals are carving out a monopoly on the world’s contraband diamonds.Belgium is the centre for world diamond trading, and the high diamond council in Antwerp sets prices for world markets. The council has been trying to secure greater government controls in Russia, Africa, and South America, to tackle the black market in smuggled diamonds.Selling the Dome diamonds, especially the 2-inch-long, pear-shaped Millennium Star, would have presented immense problems for dealers in Britain or Europe. The other 11 stones are rare blue diamonds, gathered at the De Beers Premier mine in South Africa, which yields one significant blue stone a year All the gems would have been immediately identified.. A man was convicted yesterday of murdering a retired merchant seaman whom he suspected of being a paedophile despite his acquittal on a child abuse charge.

Lawson and his girlfriend, Chantelle Day, 16, had earlier been found guilty of conspiring to cause Mr Wilkins grievous bodily harm – relating to an attack eight days before the killing. As the jury returned, Lawson hurled racist abuse at police officers who were standing in the public gallery.The jury is yet to reach a verdict on Ian Lawless, 40, who is also charged with murder and a third man, Gary Fairbanks, 43, who is charged with incitement to commit murder. Both men deny the offences.The jury was told Day wrote a blueprint foreshadowing the murder, detailing how she planned to break into Mr Wilkins’ flat, put socks in his mouth, pour petrol all over him and then ignite it.Mr Lawless, a pub cellarman, was allegedly the look-out for his godson, Lawson, who poured the turpentine into the flat, struck a match and created a fire that smouldered and produced toxic gases that suffocated Mr Wilkins and his 12-year-old dog. Lawson was 19 at the time of the attack, which came three months after Mr Wilkins was cleared by Grimsby Crown Court of indecently assaulting a nine-year-old girl.Evidence at Lawson’s trial has included the police statement Mr Wilkins gave when he was the victim of the earlier attack, in which he described how, eight days before his death, he was at home watching television when he saw “a kitchen light come on and a figure walk … in front of the door,” in front of him.”As soon as I got up in the hall, I saw a figure come up to punch me in the body area.