Four men have gone on trial in Berlin, accused of the notorious theft of a huge solid-gold coin from the German capital’s Bode Museum in 2017.<\/p>\n
The 100kg (220lb) Canadian “Big Maple Leaf” was made of pure 24-carat gold and was worth \u20ac3.75m (\u00a33.4m; $4.3m).<\/p>\n
The chief suspects on trial, all in their early 20s, are two brothers and a cousin from a Lebanese Berlin family accused of organised crime links.<\/p>\n
A ladder, a wheelbarrow and a getaway car were allegedly used in the heist.<\/p>\n
Detectives have not recovered the coin, and believe it has been either cut into pieces or melted down and sold.<\/p>\n
It was one of just five such coins minted by Canada, and had been donated to the museum by an anonymous collector.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege that the three chief suspects climbed onto adjacent railway tracks and used a ladder as a bridge to break into the museum through a third-floor window, which was not alarmed.<\/p>\n
The men then smashed through a bullet-proof glass case to steal the coin.<\/p>\n
They are believed to have used a wheelbarrow and skateboard to roll the coin away before abseiling from the tracks to their getaway vehicle. It was in Monbijou Park, on the other bank of the River Spree.<\/p>\n
The suspects were named as brothers Ahmed and Wayci Remmo (20 and 24, respectively) and their cousin Wissam Remmo (21).<\/p>\n
A fourth man – 20-year-old Denis W – worked as a security guard at the museum and is accused of having facilitated the heist by advising on locations and security.<\/p>\n
The men are on trial in a youth court and are not in detention. If found guilty, they could face up to 10 years in jail. The verdict is expected to come on 28 March.<\/p>\n
A defence lawyer told the court that police had presented “not a single shred of evidence” to show that the Remmo men had stolen the coin. The defendants remained silent.<\/p>\n
On the night of the break-in security cameras recorded three masked men wearing hoodies near the museum.<\/p>\n
Last July\u00a0police seized 77 houses, apartment blocks and garden allotments owned by the Remmo family<\/a>. Police suspected that they were bought with the proceeds of crime.<\/p>\n During the gold coin investigation the alleged getaway car was broken into and the inside was sprayed with foam from a fire extinguisher. The apparent attempt to destroy evidence was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Big Maple Leaf coin<\/h2>\n
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