The Antwerp Justice department has opened a new investigation into fraudulent practices in the diamond sector. Investigators have identified a network that recruits pensioners for diamond trafficking, the Gazet van Antwerp and Het Nieuwsblad said on Tuesday. The Ecofin research department did a search at the Blitz Travel agency on Friday, which is in the diamond quarter of Antwerp. Blitz Travel is not itself suspected of fraud, but the agency has travel data concerning traffickers who were sent all over the world.
The investigation into this diamond trafficking started when several pensioners from Antwerp were stopped abroad with large quantities of diamonds hidden in their most intimate parts.
The investigation is not really looking at the mules themselves, but the criminal organization that put the contraband in place at the request of diamond negotiators.
(Source: Belga)
