Dutch officers now consider the suspects concerned in a heist of Dacian gold artifacts from the Drents Museum in Assen earlier this 12 months hid the artifacts after failing to promote them on the black market, Romania Insider reported Monday.
The speculation affords the chance that the artifacts, together with the Helmet of Coțofenești, relationship again to the fifth century, might nonetheless be recovered intact. (Authorities beforehand introduced a principle that the artifacts might have been melted right down to salvage the gold and sells the supplies with out being detected.)
The gold, which was in Drent on mortgage from Romania’s Nationwide Historical past Museum and insured for €30 million, was stolen throughout a nighttime raid in January. Authorities arrested the primary suspects on January 29.
This week, a Dutch district courtroom prolonged the pre-trial detention of two of these suspects by one other 90 days. They face fees of aggravated theft, property destruction, and inflicting an explosion. A 3rd suspect, aged 20, stays in custody after reportedly confessing his involvement to undercover brokers. 4 extra people stay beneath investigation however are usually not in custody.
In a associated replace, authorities carried out new searches of enterprise properties in April and detained two extra suspects.
Dutch police consider the suspects have saved the gold hidden after failing to seek out consumers, with some consultants arguing that their rarity would make it troublesome to promote them underground with out discover.
The following listening to associated to the case is about for July 30, with a full trial anticipated to start in 2026.
