On 7th November 2000, a criminal gang attempted to steal the flawless 777 carats (155 g) Millennium Star diamond valued at over 200 million pounds, from an exhibition at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London.
At first police were unsure of the exact location of the robbery, but after months of surveillance, they discovered that the intended target was the Millennium Dome. On the 7th of November the robbers, armed with smoke bombs, ammonia, a sledge hammer and a nail gun, crashed through into the Dome with a stolen JCB Excavator, smashing through to the vault. The robbers planned to escape by speedboat on the River Thames.
The police operation to catch the robbers was codenamed "Operation Magician" and involved around 200 officers including forty from the Specialist Firearms Command, CO19. They were briefed at dawn, some officers were positioned behind a dummy wall and others were dressed as cleaners and Dome employees with their firearms concealed. A further sixty armed Flying Squad officers were stationed around the Thames, and 20 on the river itself to hamper any escape attempts. The jewels were replaced with worthless fakes the night before the raid, just in case the robbers succeeded. Five men were sentenced on various different robbery charges. In command of the operation was Detective Superintendent Jon Shatford of the Metropolitan police.
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