THE Namibian Police are still in the process of verifying the number and value of diamonds recovered in the Namdia heist.
The Issue has learned that authorities are first trying to ascertain whether the diamonds recovered correspond with the figures provided by the parastatal, before further verifications would be made regarding how much stock Namdia received during the week leading to the robbery.
More than two weeks after the Saturday 18 January robbery, the Namibian Police, Namdia and the Ministry of Mines and Energy have all maintained radio silence, leading the country to rely on speculation and wild conspiracy theories to piece together what actually transpired that Saturday afternoon.
It has also been reported in the media that 446 diamond parcels are still missing, with police officials who attended the scene also being looked at as potential suspects of opportunistically taking diamonds from the crime scene.
Deputy Inspector General for operations Elias Mutota, last week told The Issue that there has been no formal complaint alleging that police are complicit in stealing diamonds found at the scene. He added that police only found news of potential diamonds going missing from the scene via social media. He, however, added that police will investigate the possibility of diamonds going missing from the scene and will not just focus their investigations on the police but all those present on the day.
These include the Namdia staff, ministry of mines officials, private security personnel, emergency medical personnel and onlookers. He called on the public to assist the police by reporting any relevant information that can assist in the police investigations.
The Issue spoke to several officials who were on the scene on the day of the robbery, who confirmed that they had made sworn statements regarding their whereabouts on the fateful day.
Mutota also confirmed to The Issue that police found 13 packs of diamonds at Joel Angula’s residence and a further five packs were found in Angula’s duty station at Namdia.
The 45-year-old Angula appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and possession of uncut diamonds and two counts of attempted murder, on 21 January, three days after the armed robbery at Namdia’s office.
Angula and his coaccused Sam Shololo (45) were both kept in police custody until 23 May for further investigations.
THAT FATEFUL DAY
On the day of the robbery, law enforcement sources told The Issue that Endjala parked his official Trustco vehicle at a friend’s house in Windhoek, then drove with the friend’s car to the Trustco offices and parked it there. He later walked to a nearby service station where he was picked up by a vehicle which seemed to have taken him to the Namdia offices.
Unconfirmed reports indicate that police found Namidia’s building and floor plans in Endjala’s car.
Investigators believed that Endjala and Shololo were smuggled into the premises in Angula’s car, a Toyota Hilux bakkie, and stayed in the car for over an hour.
Angula allegedly then came to open a door that connects the Namdia staff parking lot and the office building. He is believed to have squatted and fixed something with his shoes. This was believed to have been a signal to show the two accomplices in his car that the coast was clear.
The Issue was also informed that there is CCTV footage of Angula using a can of spray paint to blind some of the cameras on the premises, however, he did not get to all of them. The footage allegedly also showed how the three men tied up the employees sorting the diamonds. One of them was also assaulted with a gun on the head.
Four Namdia employees were working the diamonds in the sorting room, while two ministry of mines diamond inspectors were there to observe and ensure everything was above board. It is a statutory requirement for the ministry officials to inspect and observe such processes.
Police recovered four Makarov pistols at the scene.
Sources said that Angula allegedly used the CCTV to guide the two around the building and helped them round up the employees who were tied up and some stabbed with knives.
Eiseb’s lifeless body was found in a store room with a Checkers plastic bag over his head.
UNCONFIRMED
The Issue has also been informed that police are following other leads that could help unlock the case. Police sources say that investigators are following information which indicates that some of the suspects in the case had received substantial amounts of money into their respective bank accounts on the eve of the robbery. Some sources point the figure to be N$1 million for each.
The money has not been found or confirmed to have been paid over and into which accounts. The sources say investigations are still underway to verify the validity or plausibility of such information and whether it was related to the heist.
The Issue also learned that police are looking into Angula’s other business ties. Sources said that police are following information linking Angula to a local businessman who is also operating in the diamond sector.
The businessman (name withheld) has allegedly been renting a vehicle which belongs to Angula for several months and in turn Angula would allegedly receive payments for the rental in excess of N$75 000 at a time.
Senior law enforcement sources confirmed that police were looking into this information but cautioned that it was yet to be verified and is therefore being treated as hearsay.
BLAST FROM THE PAST
The secrecy and intrigue of the Namdia heist has the remnants of the 2010 NamGem heist, which left the country stunned as diamonds worth approximately N$20 million vanished into thin air out of a world class, state-of-the-art vault and security system from the diamond cutting and polishing factory at Okahandja.
NamGem was a joint venture primarily between Namdeb and New York-based diamond manufacturing and distribution company Lazare Kaplan International (LKI) chaired by international diamond tycoon Maurice Tempelsman.
On a Monday morning 6 September 2010 production at the diamond polishing factory came to an abrupt halt. It was discovered that the factory’s impenetrable vault was compromised and gems worth N$20 million were missing. A total of 1 036 diamonds weighing 1 713 carats were discovered missing.
That Monday morning also coincided with NamGem’s new general manager Tony Bessinger’s first day at work. He replaced Eliphas Hawala who had left the company to join the government over a week earlier.
The robbers might have taken advantage of the about 10 days period where the factory was leaderless.
Shortly after the discovery NamGem’s then production manager Erez Ben Shushan, was arrested. Shushan, an Israeli national, was seconded to NamGem by LKI.
Paulus Shikoyeni who was the factory’s chief of security was also suspended in the aftermath of the heist, So too was a Maghreth Kahee, an employee, whose crime at the time was allegedly because the company discovered, during its investigations, that she had a romantic relationship with Shikoyeni.
Authorities at the time believed the robbery occurred the evening of 3 September 2010. The security system at the factory was allegedly malfunctioning the week leading to the incident. Shushan, the production manager, was working late and is believed to have been preparing to travel to Israel in the approaching days. He was going to join other Israeli NamGem employees who flew out of Namibia the previous day to attend a wedding celebration. He is believed to have sent Shikoyen home and that he would call the security chief back once he is done working and ready to go home. Security protocol dictates that three people should jointly lock the vault.
Media reports at the time state that Shushan went home earlier than expected and left the vault open when he went home and called Shikoyeni and asked him to go and lock it later.
The Issue has learned that the vault in question had a layered security system with multiple locking mechanisms.
The outside solid door has a threeway opening system that has key pads with an electronic combination and a re-locking mechanism. This outside door also generates printouts detailing its usage.
Inside between the contents of the safe and the solid door is another steel security gate, which requires three keys to open. The keys are kept by three different people. In this case, one was in the custody of the production manager, the security chief and the floor supervisor.
A person briefed on the investigations then, told The Issue that it was not practical for Shikoyeni to have entered the vault because the security gate inside was already locked with the two keys, his key would not open it alone and the said parcel was allegedly situated in a corner two meters from the gate. He would have been required to use something else to hook the parcel containing the diamonds out. The investigations allegedly also further revealed that Shikoyeni spent only five minutes in the vault area, making it a tight timeline to have pulled the heist off, while ignoring diamond packages within arms’ reach of the security gate in the vault.
Interestingly, the stolen parcel of diamonds allegedly arrived at NamGem during the preceding week and was not yet loaded onto the NamGem inventory database. It also contained uncut diamonds which are more lucrative on the blackmarket. The Issue has also learned that there was a further N$1.5 million worth of diamonds that disappeared that weekend from a smaller safe near the main vault that was not reported about.
Investigations into the case yielded no results and the prosecutor general’s office eventually withdrew the charges against Shushan who was the prime suspect. His bail money of N$100 000 returned to him while an internal disciplinary hearing also found him not guilty of gross negligence.
Law enforcement sources said the NamGem diamonds case was a mystery that has yet to be solved. During 2010 some investigations led authorities to believe the gems were going to be sold in Johannesburg, South Africa. But that trail also ran cold, leaving only questions over the largest diamond heist at the time. Much like the Namdia case.
