German police launch raids over Berlin museum heist

Berlin police raided more than a dozen jewelry stores and apartments on Wednesday with suspected links to the 2017 heist from the city's Bode Museum.

Three years ago, thieves stole a €3.75 million ($4.6 million) giant gold coin called "Big Maple Leaf," which has never been recovered.

During Wednesday's raids, police seized suspected counterfeit coins, counterfeiting tools and a five-digit sum of money, according to the police and the Attorney General's Office in Berlin.

Police are still evaluating the evidence, but those targeted are suspected of involvement in commercial receiving of stolen goods and commercial counterfeiting. No arrests have been made.

The eight suspects, aged between 14 and 51 and of different nationalities, are suspected of having procured stolen gold in order to melt it down and use it to produce counterfeit collectors gold coins.

These coins were allegedly then sold through jewelry stores operated by family members in the Berlin districts of Neukölln and Reinickendorf.

About 120 police officers were involved on the raids against the 14 properties.

In February 2020, three defendants were sentenced to several years in prison for the theft of 100kg (220 pound) Big Maple Leaf.

An investigator earlier told Spiegel-TV: "The chances are 50-50 that we will still find remnants of the gold coin."

The latest searches came two days after the arrest of a key suspect in a heist on a Dresden museum last year. That suspect was from the same crime family linked to the Canadian gold coin theft.

aw/rc (dpa, AFP, AP)