Swiss security has more holes than its cheese.
A container holding $600 million worth of loose diamonds was
left sitting with a gaping hole on the bottom at the same JFK warehouse where
thieves swiped $1.2 million in cash last week, The Post has learned.
In both instances, the crates arrived on Swiss airlines
flights from Zurich.
“Someone could have put their arm inside the cargo container
and taken what was inside,” a source said.
A Port Authority cop spotted the damaged cargo container
Thursday at around 1:35 p.m., an hour after the flight landed, sources said.
Although it was still sealed, the container “had a gap of
several inches on the bottom and parcels were visible inside.”
The contents included up to $600 million worth of diamonds
that were destined for jewelers in New York City and elsewhere, sources said.
“It was extremely easy for anyone to put in their arm there
and take something out of there,” the source added.
Police supervisors and representatives for SwissPort, the
cargo shipper, moved the container to a “secure unpacking location” where
officials compared the inventory inside with a shipping manifest.
Nothing was found to have been stolen or lost.
Unlike last Saturday’s robbery, where thieves used a
forklift to puncture the crate in order to remove stacks of cash, the cargo
containing the diamonds was “probably compromised by age and use,” said a
source.
The cash robbery went unnoticed for two days, when the crates
were opened at an East Rutherford, NJ, Federal Reserve center. The thieves left
behind about $92 million.
Sources said it was being investigated as an inside job, and
the FBI planned to give polygraph tests to airport workers who had access to
Building 22.
SwissPort International Ltd., which is based in Zurich, is
the formal name of the firm that owned the cargo container containing the
diamonds.
The company ships 3.5 million tons of cargo yearly on behalf
of some 650 client-companies and is active at 180 airports in 37 countries,
according to the company’s Web site.
A spokesman for the firm could not be reached, and a
spokesman for the Port Authority declined to comment.
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