German Court Convicts Five Men for Green Vault Jewel Heist

It was a cold, blustery morning in November 2019 when the city of Dresden, in eastern Germany, woke up to a shock.

Overnight, robbers had stolen a hundred-million dollar royal jewelry collection from the city’s historic Green Vault, a set of basement suites in a castle that is now part of a museum.

The robbers left the vault floor covered with shards of broken glass and blanketed it with powder to throw forensic investigators off their scent.

On Tuesday, in a high-security Dresden courtroom, five men — all from the same notorious Berlin crime family — were convicted and sentenced for their role in the heist and the getaway. Prison time for Rabieh Remo, Wissam Remmo, Bashir Remmo and a set of twins, who were tried under youth guidelines because they were just 20 at the time of the heist and whose names are not publicized under German’s privacy rules, ranges from 4 years and 4 months to 6 years and 3 months. The sixth defendant was acquitted because he had an alibi.

The men are part of a family dubbed the “Remmo Clan” by German tabloids and its members have faced charges on crimes such as welfare fraud, extortion and robbery.

During the trial, which lasted 15 months, the six defendants sometimes seemed like the crew of “Ocean’s Eleven” and at other times like “Mr. Bean.” But it was not just the accused who at times appeared inept. The trial shed a light on a German justice system that failed — to an almost comical degree — when it came to stopping determined criminals.