Angolan Nabbed with $4M Rough Diamond in Frankfurt

Posted in News by Admin on January 15th, 2010

An 86.7-carat rough diamond worth an estimated $3.6 million has been seized at Frankfurt airport from an Angolan man arriving from Namibia, police said on Friday. The 38-year-old, who has not been named, told customs officials after being detained with a forged visa on Thursday that he intended to use the precious stone to buy cars in Portugal and that it was worth only $72,000. 

But an examination concluded the diamond, around three centimetres (one inch) high and three centimetres wide, and for which the man could produce no documentation, was worth around EUR 2.5 million.

The man will not get the diamond back as he is accused of “a whole range of offences” including breaching international rules stopping the trade in “blood diamonds,” from conflict areas, customs spokesman Hans-Juergen Schmidt said.

He also faces charges of smuggling and of withholding around $718,000 in import taxes, and was due to go before an investigating judge later on Friday, Schmidt told AFP.  “The diamond will most likely be confiscated and go to the German state,” Schmidt said. “He will not be a free man whatever happens. The judge will either remand him in custody or he will be deported to Angola.”