Gems stolen in Paris, found in drainpipe

Paris: More than two years after men dressed in wigs and scarves struck the Harry Winston jewellery store in Paris's golden triangle of upscale shops, the police this week discovered a cache of sparkling diamonds from the theft in a far less glamorous place: a drainpipe in the northern suburbs of the city.

They found one diamond ring the size of a child's marble, along with 18 other rings and 3 earrings, in a plastic container inside a concrete mould at the home of the man suspected as the mastermind in Seine-Saint-Denis.

The police were saying little about Monday's discovery of jewellery valued at $20.6 million other than dryly describing the inventory. "We are saying nothing, nothing," a police spokeswoman said Tuesday. "The judge is not happy that the information came out."

The jewellery was part of a record haul during Christmastime 2008, when four men -- three dressed as women -- robbed the high-end jewellery store in the Eighth Arrondissement at closing time, grabbing their glittering goods within 15 minutes. The theft, which Harry Winston then valued at roughly $110 million, was called the robbery of the century by the French news media because the armed robbers had planned so precisely that they knew the names and addresses of some of the employees.

The men flaunted a hand grenade and, according to witnesses, barked orders in Eastern European accents, leading to widespread speculation that the robbery was a caper of the Pink Panther jewellery theft ring, which has roots in Serbia and is being hunted by Interpol.

In 2009, though, after an initial search of the house, the police detained 25 people, ranging in age from 22 to 67, with home-grown roots in the northern suburbs of Paris. Nine of them were later charged, including the man suspected as the mastermind, Daoudi Yahiaoui, 46, who owns the house where the jewels were discovered and who is already in jail, awaiting sentencing in the robbery.

During the first search of the house, the police recovered expensive watches and rings hidden behind a false wall that were later displayed at a news conference. More than $1.4 million in cash was also found in different hiding places, along with a shotgun and a rocket launcher. But investigators were convinced that more jewels were hidden away.

The thieves made one crucial error: leaving behind a purse with traceable DNA. Investigators also dissected the accents heard on security tapes and realized that the robbers did not have Slavic accents, but the French of the Parisian suburbs. Those clues led them to a chain of local fences, petty criminals and foreign jewellery appraisers, and finally to the jewels themselves.

Since the robbery, Harry Winston reduced the value of the stolen jewellery to the wholesale price of $32 million, receiving a $20 million insurance settlement, according to its annual reports.

But the risk adjusters and insurance syndicates with Lloyd's of London, Harry Winston's insurer, posted a $1 million reward immediately after the robbery for information leading to the recovery of the diamonds. The insurance investigators for Lloyd's, who had always harboured suspicions that the thieves were home-grown, placed a classified notice in the local daily, Le Parisien, which circulates in the outskirts of Paris.