Pink Diamond Heist is PR Win for Dubai
August 20, 25
It took more than a year to plan the theft of a $25m pink diamond.
And it took Dubai Police just eight hours to crack the case, locate the gem and arrest three suspects, according to a statement issued on Monday (18 August).
They also rushed out a slick two-and-a-half minute PR video boasting of their triumph in recovering the 21.25-carat fancy intense VVS1 stone.
In it, they reassured everyone that "Dubai remains one of the safest cities in the world, committed to protecting the rights and properties of all."
They also put out a press statement quoting the victim of the theft, an unnamed diamond trader, who said: "Dubai has become a safe global centre for diamond trade. It's important we uphold the standards that make that possible."
Maybe that's a natural reaction to being hoodwinked in a year-long sting and being forcibly separated from one of the world's most valuable diamonds.
He also admitted being caught off guard by the scheme and urged others in the industry to follow official safety guidelines set by the emirate. And he praised the "speed and professionalism" of the police.
There may be just a tiny bit of spin going on here. Dubai has built itself into a global hub for diamond trading in just a couple of decades, and does not want its reputation tarnished by crime or the fear of crime.
The speed and professionalism of the police operation was matched only by the speed and professionalism of its PR department in heading off any reputational concerns.
So much so that the police said they had "successfully thwarted the theft" when that wasn't actually the case.
They did a swift and excellent job of apprehending three suspects and recovering the stone, but that doesn't alter the fact that the theft did actually take place.
The alleged perpetrators plotted the crime for a year, after learning that the diamond had arrived in Dubai from Europe, according to Dubai Police.
They rented luxury cars and arranging meetings at upscale hotels to establish credibility. They convinced the owner they had a buyer lined up and eventually lured him to a villa, with the stone, supposedly the introduce him to said buyer.
Once the diamond was brought out, they "nabbed it and fled," according to police, although a recording of the victim's somewhat puzzling emergency call hints that it is more complicated than that.
"I came to meet a client to sell a diamond to them," he said. "They looked at the stone and now they say the stone is not with them any more."
That's as much as we know about the suspects, except they're described as Asian, and were planning to smuggle the diamond to an Asian country in a small fridge.
The cops' story was one astonishing success from start to finish, with multiple patrols arriving within minutes of the victim's call.
"Leveraging advanced technologies, Dubai Police CID teams identified the three suspects, all of Asian nationality, tracked their locations, and arrested them—ensuring the diamond was safely recovered before it could be smuggled out of the country," according to the police press release.
So all's well that ends well. But there's a story behind every story. What we have so far only skims the surface, so we'll have to wait and see what comes out in court.
Have a fabulous weekend.